One Moment
by tvnerd13
Summary: When the BAU is faced with the most horrific case they could ever imagine, everything they thought they knew is challenged. When a killer decides to make them pawns in a twisted game, nothing will bring them closer together yet tear them further apart.
1. Chapter 1

In every person's life, there is always one defining moment.

One moment when the world comes to a standstill.

One moment when everything you thought you knew is challenged.

One moment that will forever be ingrained in your mind.

One moment that will change your life.

One case that could be the downfall of the most elite unit of the FBI.

One person fighting for their life.

One family torn apart.

One blink of an eye.

One unsub.

One bullet.

One moment.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! First of all, thank you to everyone who read the first little teaser to this story. To all of you who reviewed or put this story (or me) on alert, you're awesome. I'm not sure how long this story will be, but I do have a lot of ideas for it. My plan is to update every Monday. Keep an eye out for more frequent updates though, cause I'll post more if I have a chance to write. I usually work 60 hour work weeks, so if I miss the Monday post bear with me. This is going to be a pretty dark story, but I promise there will be some humor and fun thrown in along the way. Chapters will also most likely get longer as the story progresses. **

**I don't own anything except my own twisted imagination. And I don't have a beta, so all mistakes are my own and I apologize in advance.  
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><p>It had been a long couple days for the criminal profilers of the FBI's behavioral analysis unit. They had just returned home from a horrific case in Detroit, and it went unspoken that the 6 profilers wanted nothing more than to go and deal with the case in their own separate ways. It was uncanny how each of them knew what would happen when they landed from a hard case. Sometimes they went out as a group to try and forget what they had seen. Sometimes a few of them would go have a couple drinks together before retreating to their homes. And sometimes they all just wanted to be alone and away from anything attached to the case, even if that meant shutting each other out for a night. It was the rarest of options, but it did happen from time to time.<p>

The four men and two women all silently walked through the doors of the BAU, their go-bags slung over their shoulders and their heads hung in defeat. Cases with kids were the worst. Watching the unsub take the life of a child in front of them before they had a chance to react was gut-wrenching. Realizing too late that the child's bitter biological father was the unsub, the team had walked in on the man holding his child, his ex-wife, and his exes new husband hostage. There was nothing they could do as the man had held them at bay with his weapon, his child in his arms as a human shield from the agent's line of fire. They were too slow to find some way to surprise the man before he had shot his child, and then himself, leaving behind a devastated mother and step-father. These were the cases that made them rethink why they did this job. With all the good that the BAU did on a daily basis, it was something as devastating as this case to make them wonder if it would ever be enough.

"Everyone go home. We can deal with reports in the morning." Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner broke the silence that had befallen his team since they had gotten on the jet from Detroit. "Don't come in before 10. Everyone try to unwind and get some sleep. I'll need you back here and as mentally ready as you can be in the morning."

Mumbled agreements were heard all around as everyone grabbed what they needed from the office and headed right back out the door. Only acknowledging each other with a glance and a nod, everyone went their separate ways.

Derek Morgan would go home and change to go out and find some nameless woman to go home with. He would slip out under the cover of night to retreat back to his own home, his own bed, and hope that the nightmares would not haunt him.

David Rossi would go to an upscale bar where he usually went after a particularly hard case. He could enjoy the finest liquor without anyone bothering him. No bartenders asking questions, no one wondering why he still had a gun on his hip and a darkness in his eyes.

Aaron Hotchner would go home to his son, Jack. He would sit with him and read him a story, hold him close, and try to forget how someone could take the life of their own child. He would bask in Jack's innocence, remembering that through the horrors in the world, these were things that they fought for. Even when they lost, the cases they won were worth it.

Spencer Reid would go home and write his mother a letter. He would then take the files from the case out of his bag and stare at them until he figured out where they went wrong, where they should have realized what was happening. Then he would finish his report. When he was content that he could put the case to rest, he would curl up on the couch with his childhood blanket and read a book that he and his mother would read together as a child, effectively shutting out the case.

Jennifer Jareau would go home and draw a hot bath. Lighting candles and keeping an open bottle of wine next to the tub, she would bawl until she couldn't cry any longer. When the water had gone cold, she would dress herself in the warmest sweats she had and open another bottle of wine before sitting on the couch and trying to get lost in whatever was on TV.

Emily Prentiss would drive around, watching the nightlife on the streets. She would find a bench to sit on and observe how deliriously oblivious people were to the horrors she and her team faced everyday. She would envy that they didn't know any better. That they could enjoy life carefree without knowing the monsters that lurked among them. Then after she couldn't stand it any longer, she would retreat back to her car, already heading towards her destination before she could really think about it.

The knocking on the door would be persistent, almost frantic. It would only take a minute for the door to swing open and for blue eyes to lock on brown eyes. It would take less than a minute for a hand to reach out to grab a handful of shirt and pull the other into the house, crashing their lips together as the door slammed.

They all had their own ways to deal. Tomorrow would be a new day, and each one of them would try to forget about this night. They all knew how each other dealt with these types of cases. They all knew that it was an unspoken bond between them. They all knew that it's what made them a team, a family. There were no secrets among them, no matter how hard they tried to keep them.

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><p><strong>See that little review button? If you feel compelled to, leave me a review! I'd love to know what everyone thinks so far. Good or bad, feedback is always motivating and welcomed.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**If this chapter seems a little jumpy and confusing, don't worry, it'll all be explained eventually. I promise. Please leave me a review to let me know what y'all think about this so far! It definitely helps motivate me to write knowing if you guys are enjoying it. Or even if you hate it, let me know why so I know if I need to fix something!**

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><p>It was early the next day when Emily woke up to the sounds of a shower running. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she glanced at the clock on the bedside table. The red numbers read 7:25 and Emily groaned. Sitting up and running a hand through her hair, the brunette swung her legs off the side of the bed and sat still for a moment trying to clear her sleep-ridden head. Looking around the room, she couldn't help but chuckle at the clothes strewn about. Memories of the previous night flooding back, she sighed as she got up and began to find what articles of clothing were hers. She had found everything but her shirt when the bathroom door opened.<p>

"You're up." Emily looked up to find JJ in nothing but a towel, leaning against the door frame with a smirk on her face.

"Might as well get up and get this report done with." Emily shrugged.

JJ made no move to hide the fact that she was checking out Emily clad in only jeans and a bra. She stood there staring for a moment as Emily continued to try and find her shirt, appreciating the older woman's toned body. Walking into the room, JJ picked up a shirt off the back of a chair and held it out to Emily. "Looking for this?"

Emily took the shirt from JJ, putting it on while not looking into the blonde's eyes. "I'll see you at the office."

"I made coffee before I got in the shower if you want to grab some on your way out." JJ nodded and threw her towel off as she reached the dresser and searched for undergarments.

Emily hungrily took in the blonde's naked form and tried to fight off the immediate arousal she felt at the sight. "Thanks." She said after a moment, taking one last longing look at JJ and leaving the room.

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><p>It was around 8:45 when Emily walked into the bullpen and saw that Morgan and Reid were already seated at their desks. Looking around, she noticed Rossi's silhouette in his office and JJ's office door closed but the light on. Even though JJ was no longer the liaison for the team, she still had her own office because she took the time to look through case files when she could.<p>

Making her way to her desk, Emily threw her bag down and heavily plopped into her chair. "I see that we all had the same idea coming in earlier than necessary."

"The greatest minds think alike." Morgan quipped.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Aren't you just a fucking genius."

"So bitchy so early in the morning." Morgan yawned. "I take it you didn't find a way to relieve some stress last night?"

Emily's eyes immediately looked at JJ's office door. "Fuck off, Morgan."

"I should have know that none of you would wait until 10 to come in." Hotch said as he strode into the bullpen, interrupting Emily and Morgan's bickering. "Is everyone alright? I can set up a meeting with the psychiatrist if anyone needs any help dealing with what we saw yesterday." The chorus of "no's" did not surprise the unit chief and he nodded in understanding. He glanced at his watch to check the time. "It's just about 9. We'll debrief at 10." With that he left the team to carry on and shut himself in his office.

Morgan threw his pen onto his desk and rubbed his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. "Does anyone else need a refill on coffee?"

"A little hung over today, are we?" Emily smirked at the obviously tired man.

Morgan raised an eyebrow at the brunette. "You didn't look in the mirror while you were getting ready today, did you?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Emily scrunched her nose in confusion.

"I could use some more coffee." Reid stood up in an attempt to distract his friends. "I'll just bring the pot over."

JJ emerged from her office and sat on Emily's desk, scooting a pile of folders out of the way. "Why couldn't we have had the day off today?" She covered her yawn and shook her head to attempt to wake herself up. "Maybe we'll get lucky and Hotch will let us go home after we hand in our reports." She lifted her coffee mug up to her lips and sighed when she realized it was empty. "That makes me so sad." She muttered to herself and set the cup down next to her.

"Reid is bringing the pot over." Emily couldn't help but chuckle. "Are you already done with your report?"

"I wish. I just needed a break." JJ rubbed the back of her neck. "Is anyone done yet?"

"I finished mine last night." Reid set the coffee pot on his desk. "Whoa guys, there's enough for everyone." He squeaked when everyone lunged for the pot at the same time.

"There's no such thing as 'enough' coffee with you people around." Rossi stated as he joined the group. "Top me off." He held his mug out to the young doctor.

"What is the probability of Hotch letting us go when we're all done?" Emily wondered.

"Try slim to none." Rossi sighed.

"Hello my pretties." Garcia smiled as she walked up to the profilers. "How are you all doing?" When she was met by 5 grunts, she rolled her eyes. "That good, huh? Well what if I tell you you're off the list of teams to take a case for the next 2 days and I'm on my way to convince Hotch to let you leave after the debriefing."

"Baby girl, I would kiss you if I wasn't so tired." Morgan gave the perky computer analyst a genuine smile.

"Believe me, it would be better for everyone if you all had a couple days off. Every single one of you looks like shit on a stick. And I mean that in the nicest way possible." Garcia glanced at Emily. "Cupcake, did you not look in the mirror this morning?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Emily mumbled to herself. JJ, who had just taken a generous sip of her coffee, sputtered and coughed as she tried to swallow the offending liquid as soon as she looked at the brunette. Emily immediately patted the younger woman on the back in concern. "Jesus, Jennifer. Are you ok."

"I think it has something to do with the hickey on your neck." Reid cocked his head to the side as he looked at the two women. "Who gave you that?"

Emily went wide eyed. "Excuse me?"

"Finish your reports people!" JJ demanded as she hopped off Emily's desk.

"Whatever you say, Dracula." Rossi smirked.

Morgan let out a loud laugh, Emily rubbed her face with her hands, JJ turned beet red and practically ran to her office, Rossi chucked to himself, and Reid looked between everyone with a confused expression.

"I don't get it." The genius said slowly. "Why did you just call JJ 'Dracula'?"

Morgan clapped Reid on the back. "Think about it, man."

Reid furrowed his brow as everyone went back to writing their reports. 10 minutes later he looked up and gasped. "Oh! I get it now!"

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><p>At 10, the profilers made their way into the round table room and collapsed into the chairs. Hotch glanced around the room and sighed at his team. "Garcia is right. All of you do look like 'shit on a stick', as she so delicately put it. As soon as we're done here, you all are free to go and take the afternoon off. We're off the rotation for the next few days unless something urgent comes in, so take the time to relax and clear your heads." A collective sigh of relief was heard and Hotch couldn't help but smile at his team. "Let's get this done and get out before lunch. I have a date with a little boy and a zoo."<p>

Not even an hour later, the team all poured out of the conference room and practically ran to grab their belongings.

Garcia, in all of her colorful and flamboyant glory, was sitting on Morgan's desk as she waited for the group to reach the bullpen. Feet hanging off the edge of the desk, the tech was swinging her hot pink heels back and forth in anticipation. Seeing her friends coming her way, she gave the profilers a big smile. "I'm sure everyone is going to want to go home and crash for a little, but what do you all think about a chill night at say… Emily's?" Garcia smirked at the brunette.

"Why is it always my place?" Emily wondered.

"Because you have the nicest place." Morgan answered. "And a fully stocked bar." He nudged Emily's shoulder.

Emily rolled her eyes. "I just restocked from the last get together we had."

"I want to see Sergio. I won't drink any of your alcohol." Reid smiled.

"Oh no, if we're all drinking, so are you." Emily laughed. "Come over around 7?"

Everyone, minus Hotch and Rossi, agreed and the members of the BAU all went their separate ways to rest before that night.

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><p>"JJ, wait up." Emily called after the blonde as she saw her about to get into her car. JJ stopped and leaned against the car, waiting for the brunette to reach her. "You headed home?" The older woman asked when she caught up to JJ.<p>

"That's the plan. What about you?"

"Same. Unless you want to come over early and hang out before the others get there."

JJ raised an eyebrow. "Hang out, huh?" She smirked slightly.

"Yes." Emily rolled her eyes. "As in maybe put in a movie and crash out on the couch. We can grab something to eat on the way."

JJ glanced around and pulled Emily closer by her belt loops, pressing their bodies together. "You sure that's all you're wanting?" She whispered huskily in the profiler's ear and softly bit down on her earlobe.

Emily shuddered and pushed the blonde harder against the car, leaving no room between them. "I guess you'll just have to come over and find out."

Leaning in so that their lips were almost touching, JJ smiled. "I'll see you at 7, Prentiss." Shoving Emily off of her, she got in the car and waved at the brunette as she backed out of her parking spot and peeled out.

Emily only shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. "Fucking tease." She mumbled to herself and walked to her own car.

Not a moment later, Emily's cell phone began to ring. More focused on getting into her car, she answered without looking at the caller ID and held the phone against her ear with her shoulder. "Prentiss."

"Well, well, well. If I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes, I wouldn't believe it." Garcia's voice came over the line.

"What are you talking about Garcia?" Emily stood up straight and looked around.

"Look to your left." Garcia instructed. "Keep looking. A little further. Up. There you go." Garcia laughed when Emily's eyes landed on the camera in the corner of the parking garage. "Smile, Princess. You're on candid camera."

Emily pinched the bridge of her nose. "There really is no privacy with you around, is there?"

"Nope." Garcia laughed. "Now do you want to tell me what's going on between you and blondie?"

Emily got into her car and began her trek home. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Tsk tsk. You know better than to lie to me. I find out everything, so you might as well save us both the trouble and just come out with it."

"I'll repeat it again, I don't know what you're talking about." Emily said, exasperation evident in her voice. "Just let it go."

"Right. Fine. I'll let it go for now only because I know you're exhausted, you get impatient when you're tired, and you carry a gun. But don't think that we won't discuss this when you're back to your normal and chipper self. Everyone knows about your little deal, but to me it looks like there's more to your 'let's-get-it-on-when-the-stress-of-our-job-is-too-much-and-then-be-best-friends-the-rest-of-the-time' thing you two have going."

"Good-bye, Garcia." Emily couldn't help but pinch the bridge of her nose at being called out by the analyst.

"Toodles. I'll see you in a few hours." Garcia said cheerfully, knowing that she hit a nerve.

Emily shook her head as she ended the call and threw her phone on the passenger seat. With a loud sigh, the brunette turned up the radio and tried to relax as she drove home.

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><p>It was 6 pm when Emily was woken up by a knock at her door. After grabbing some take-out on her way home earlier, she had eaten while watching a movie and had apparently fallen asleep on the couch. Groaning as she sat up and ran a hand through her hair, she slowly made her way to the door.<p>

When the knocking got more persistent, the Emily rolled her eyes. "Hold your fucking horses!" She yelled out. "I'm coming." Arriving at the door, she opened it and opened her mouth to bitch out whoever had woken her up.

"Took you long enough." JJ huffed out before Emily could say anything. Leaning against the door frame, the blonde looked her friend up and down. "Did I wake you up?"

"You think?" Emily scoffed. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello to you too." JJ muttered under her breath. "I came early to see if you needed help with anything before everyone got here."

"Sure you did." Emily walked back into her apartment.

JJ followed the brunette and shut the door behind her. "What is that supposed to mean?" She wondered.

"Nothing." Emily yawned. "God I'm glad we have the next 2 days off."

"Me too."

Emily picked up her take-out boxes and made her way to the kitchen. "Make yourself at home. I'm going to go change real quick."

"Ok." JJ sighed as the older woman made her way upstairs to her bedroom. Sitting down on the couch, JJ wrapped the blanket that Emily had been using over herself and relaxed back into the comfortable furniture. Finding the remote, the blonde flipped through channels on the TV while she waited. Settling on the news, JJ closed her eyes and laid her head down on the back of the couch.

Emily quickly threw on some new clothes, ran a brush through her hair, and brushed her teeth. Glancing in the mirror and wincing at the obvious hickey on her neck, she wondered how she had missed that getting ready for work that morning. Sighing and running a finger over the mark, Emily made her way downstairs.

Finding JJ laying on the couch with eyes closed and the news on, Emily rolled her eyes. "Don't you get enough of this shit at work?" She asked as she read the headline of a recent murder.

"It's better than any of the other shit on TV." JJ opened an eye and peered at Emily. "You look good."

"I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt." Emily deadpanned.

JJ sat up and narrowed her eyes at the brunette. "You going to tell me what your problem is?"

"I don't have a problem." Emily shrugged her shoulders and joined JJ. Grabbing some of the blanket, she curled up onto the other end of the couch. "Does it seem like I have a problem?"

"A little bit, yeah." JJ nodded her head. "Now spill."

"I'm just tired. It was a rough case, I haven't really slept much," she gave the younger profiler a pointed look, "and I just want to relax without having to think about anything for the next 2 days."

"I know what you mean." JJ looked at Emily with a mischievous look in her eye.

"That look never means anything good." The brunette raised a brow.

JJ smirked and moved the blanket aside so that she could straddle Emily's lap. "I know what would help you forget about everything." She whispered in Emily's ear and kissed her neck.

Emily closed her eyes and bit back a moan. "You think so, huh?"

"I know so." JJ nipped at Emily's pulse point.

"You need to be careful around my neck, Dracula."

"You weren't complaining last night." The blonde took the older woman's bottom lip between her teeth.

"You're a fucking tease, you do know that right?" Emily breathed out and tried to kiss JJ.

JJ pulled back out of reach, eyes dark with desire. "Again, you weren't complaining last night."

Emily ran her hands along JJ's thighs and grabbed her ass to pull the younger woman closer. JJ moaned at the added friction and ground herself further into Emily. "I think that you're getting a little too comfortable with our 'arrangement'." The brunette ran her tongue across JJ's collarbone and lightly bit the pale skin above it on her neck.

"Says the one who invited me over earlier." Tired of the teasing, JJ grabbed the back of Emily's neck and brought their lips together in a heated kiss. "If anyone is getting to comfortable with our 'arrangement', it's you."

Before Emily could respond, the two women were interrupted by a knocking at the door.

"What the fuck." Emily huffed and pushed JJ off of her. "Who's here now?"

JJ narrowed her eyes at the brunette. "You expecting someone else before everyone gets here, Prentiss?"

"I wasn't even expecting you before everyone else got here, so no." Emily couldn't help but snap at JJ.

"Smooth." JJ bit out sarcastically.

Again, before Emily could say anything the knocking got louder. "Fucking hell." She grumbled. "I'm coming." She yelled out.

Swinging the door open with more force than necessary, Emily leveled her murderous gaze on the person on the other side.

Garcia's smile faltered as she took in the look in Emily's eyes. "Whoa. That's scary. I take it I'm interrupting something?"

"Slightly."

Garcia looked over Emily's shoulder to see JJ approaching them. "Oh damn. I was interrupting." Garcia silently cursed herself for barging in on the two women. "Hey Jayje."

"Hi Garcia." JJ offered the woman a genuine smile when she saw the glare that Emily was sending her. "Come on in."

"If I'm not going to get any more sleep, or get laid, I might as well start drinking." Emily muttered under her breath as she headed to the bar.

JJ and Garcia shared a look, both fighting a smile at Emily's grumpiness.

"We can cancel tonight here and go somewhere else if you want, Em." Garcia offered as she and JJ followed the other woman.

"It's ok." Emily poured herself a drink and took a sip. "I'll be fine as soon as I have a few of these." She held up her glass and then took another sip.

"Only if you're sure. If you're going to be Miss Grumpy-Pants all night I doubt anyone will want to be here." Garcia stated bluntly.

Emily raised a brow. "Thanks, Garcia. That's so sweet of you."

"Ladies," JJ interrupted before Garcia could say anything else. "Let's do a shot."

Emily and Garcia stared at each other for another moment before looking at JJ and nodding.

"Shots are good." Garcia said.

Grabbing three shot glasses, Emily grabbed a bottle of tequila and poured each of them a shot. Handing them out, she smiled at her friends. "To a good night." She held up her shot glass.

"To a good night!" JJ and Garcia repeated and they all put their glasses together before taking the shot.

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><p>At 11, the member of the BAU were sprawled out across Emily's living room, all partially tipsy or drunk from the alcohol they had already consumed. Morgan, Garcia, and Reid were all on the couch while Emily and JJ were on the love seat. Morgan had relaxed into one corner of the couch while Reid had taken over the other corner, and Garcia was leaning into Morgan's side with her legs resting on Reid's lap. Sergio was perched on the end of the couch next to Reid, enjoying the attention the doctor was giving him. On the love seat, JJ was the one leaning into a corner with Emily leaning against her, the blonde's arm thrown across the older woman's shoulders as Emily was lazily drawing patterns on the arm around her.<p>

"I think I drank too much." Reid burped. The room erupted into laughter at the young man's cheesy grin. "I think it's time for me to call it a night." He pet Sergio on the head and stood up, instantly swaying and having to put a hand on the couch to steady himself.

"Oh no genius, you aren't driving anywhere. Take the guest room." Emily laughed and pointed down the hall. "There's a nice big bed with your name on it."

Reid nodded and stumbled down the hallway, using the walls as support. "Thank you!" He called out over his shoulder as he made it to the room.

JJ shook her head with a smile. "That poor guy. He only had what, two drinks?"

"I think it was three." Garcia giggled and laid down with her head on Derek's lap.

"Such a lightweight." Morgan reached for his glass and finished what was left in it. "I hate to be a party pooper, but I for one am exhausted. I think I might follow Reid's lead and crash."

Garcia yawned. "I'm right there with you."

Emily smiled at her friends. "There's another room, but you guys already knew that. You're more than welcome to share it, or you can pull the couch out. None of you should drive."

Morgan gently lifted Garcia's head off of his lap and stood up. "Come on baby girl. I'll get you settled into the guest room and then take the couch." He offered his hand to Garcia.

Garcia looked at Morgan and took the offered hand. "Why don't you just stay in the guest room with me? I promise I won't do anything inappropriate to you in your drunken state. When I finally have you, it's going to be sober and completely consensual." She smiled brightly at the man and pulled on his hand.

"Yes ma'am!" Morgan let out a loud laugh and let Garcia pull him down the hallway. "Goodnight guys!" He called out to Emily and JJ over his shoulder.

"Night you two. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Garcia giggled and shoved Morgan into the room, slamming the door shut behind them.

Leaving JJ and Emily alone in the room, Emily adjusted her body so that she was still leaning on the blonde but could look at her face better. The corner of JJ's mouth turned up into a smile as Emily intertwined her fingers with her own. "What's that look for, Prentiss?"

Emily looked at her hand in JJ's. "Are you tired?"

JJ yawned and laughed. "A little. Are you?"

Emily nodded. "Do you want to stay with me, or do you want the couch?"

"As comfortable as that couch is, I would much prefer a bed." JJ leaned down and kissed Emily slowly. "If that's ok." She whispered against the brunettes lips.

Emily reached her arm up to tangle her hand in blonde locks. Pulling JJ's head to hers, she kissed the younger woman, this kiss more demanding. "I would like nothing more."

JJ shook her head playfully. "You really are getting a little too comfortable with our arrangement. Two nights in a row, Prentiss? You better watch yourself or I might begin to think that you're getting feelings involved."She joked.

"You're the one who decided to get all comfortable and touchy feely with me in front of our friends. You think I'm the one who is getting feelings involved? Let's be honest here, JJ. We both want each other." Emily said seriously.

JJ didn't offer Emily a response as she lowered her head and kissed the woman again. This kiss immediately becoming hungry and passionate, JJ tried to ignore talking about anything more involving feelings with Emily.

"I take it Will isn't coming into town this weekend?" Emily couldn't help the bitter comment as they pulled away for air.

JJ sighed heavily and shoved the older profiler away as she got up. "Seriously, Em?"

"What?" Emily challenged.

"You're unbelievable." JJ ran and hand through her hair and walked over to Emily's bar. Pouring herself a drink, she downed it in one gulp.

Emily studied her friend and the tense movements of her body. "I'm not the one fucking a co-worker while I have a boyfriend." She provoked further.

JJ slammed her glass on the counter. "What does it matter? And why does this always come up the day after we land in bed together? You're the one who came to MY house last night, if somehow you forgot that little fact." Her eyes blazed in anger. "You never care when you need to get off, so why bring it up now? Especially since you just asked me to stay the night with you for the second night in a row."

Emily stood up and walked up to JJ. "When are you going to leave him? Or does it help you get off knowing that you have a boyfriend while you're fucking me?" She ignored everything JJ had just said to push the blonde even more.

JJ closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "It's not that easy, Emily."

"Yes, it is that easy, Jennifer." Emily trapped JJ by putting her hands on either side of her on the counter. "Leave him. Be with me. What are you so afraid of?"

"This was never supposed to turn into that." JJ whispered.

"You and I both know that this isn't just about sex anymore. It's more than that. A hell of a lot more."

JJ gulped and tried to get away from the brunette. "No, it's not."

Emily pressed her body against JJ's. "Tell me you don't care about me. Tell me that you don't think about where this could go."

"I don't." JJ said, avoiding Emily's eyes.

"Look me in the eye and tell me that." Emily demanded.

Blue eyes met brown. "Fuck you." She whispered hoarsely.

In one motion, Emily lifted JJ up onto the counter and crashed their lips together in a kiss full of anger and passion. Not caring that their friends and coworkers were just down the hall, JJ immediately returned the kiss and wrapped her legs around Emily's waist, bringing their bodies closer together. Emily snaked a hand in-between them and pulled her body away only enough to slip her hand into JJ's pants.

"He'll never make you as wet as I do." Emily breathed out heavily as JJ moaned at the contact. "He'll never be able to get you off as hard as I do."

"I know." JJ admitted and kissed the brunette again to silence her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone! Thank you SO much for all the reviews and story alerts. They seriously make my day. This chapter is some back story that's necessary for stuff in the future. There's fem-slash, so if you're not a fan, you're probably not going to like this chapter. I hope everyone is still on board with this story, cause things are gonna be getting pretty interesting pretty quick! Please continue to let me know what you think!**

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><p>The next morning, Emily slowly woke up and stretched the sleep out of her muscles. Reaching out, her hand was met with cold sheets and the brunette sighed. Confirming what she already had figured out, JJ was gone and most likely had been for a while. Sitting up, Emily looked around the room and saw that not only was the blonde gone, but all traces of her being there were gone also. Running a frustrated hand through her hair, the profiler got up and threw on some sweats before making her way to the kitchen for her morning cup of coffee.<p>

As soon as Emily had reached the stairs, she could smell coffee and bacon in the air.

"Derek Morgan, I swear on my photo-shopped pictures of you that if you do not stop stealing the bacon off that plate I will make sure that your credit score lives to regret it." Garcia shrieked from the kitchen and Emily could hear the unmistaken sound of a slap.

"Garcia, it's been shown that the threat of physical violence-"

"Reid, finish that sentence and your credit score will suffer too." Garcia interrupted the doctor as Emily rounded the corner.

"Good morning guys." Emily yawned and laughed at the looks of her kitchen. "May I ask what in the fuck is going on in here?"

Garcia was standing over the stove with Emily's "Kiss the Cook" apron on, Morgan was sitting on the counter next to her, and Reid was sitting at the barstool smiling at his friends. This would seem like a nice thing to wake up to, but Emily couldn't help but lean against the wall and just stare at her normally spotless kitchen. There was flour everywhere, eggshells tossed on the counter, two large bowls of what looked like pancake mix, and all the mixings for said pancake mix spread out where ever there was clean space.

"We're making breakfast!" Reid got up and poured a cup of coffee and handed to it Emily. "It's quite entertaining to watch Garcia and Morgan try to cook together."

"I can see that." Emily took a sip of her coffee and sat down on the bar-stool next to Reid's. "It smells delicious."

"Thank you." Garcia spun around to flash Emily a bright smile.

Emily choked back a laugh. "PG, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you have flour on your face. And by that I mean all over."

Garcia narrowed her eyes and turned to Morgan, smacking him on the arm. "You could have TOLD me that I was a walking disaster."

Morgan grabbed Garcia's hand to stop the attack on his arm. "Baby girl." He began laughing. "I would have told you, but you look too damn adorable like that."

Garcia rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're lucky you're gorgeous."

Morgan kissed Garcia's hand and looked at Emily. "Where's JJ?"

Emily tried to ignore the pang of hurt at the mention of the missing blonde. Shrugging, Emily tried to sound nonchalant. "I don't know. I figured you guys knew."

"Did she not stay with you last night?" Garcia wondered.

Emily cleared her throat. "She did. She wasn't there when I woke up." Sighing, the brunette walked over to the stove and stole a piece of bacon. Garcia gasped and made a move to hit the profiler with her spatula. Grabbing her hand mid-air, Emily grabbed another piece and gave Garcia a big smile. "You made a mess of my kitchen, the least you can do it let me steal some bacon."

Garcia threw her hands up. "We'll never actually sit down and have a normal breakfast if you people keep eating the food as its being cooked."

"Honey, look at us. We are so far from normal, it's not even funny." Morgan chuckled and hopped off the counter. Giving Garcia a kiss on the cheek, he reached for the rest of the pancake mix. "I'll help you cook so we can eat."

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><p>After the foursome had finally sat down together and finished their breakfast, Morgan and Reid had said their goodbyes, thanking Emily for letting them not only come over the night before, but for letting them crash at her place and make a mess of her kitchen. Garcia had stayed behind to help the brunette clean the disaster zone, stating it was only fair since she had done the most damage.<p>

"So Cupcake, you going to tell Mama Bear what's going on between you and my other favorite girl, or am I going to have to tie you to a chair and inflict torture methods on you until you open up." Garcia wondered, breaking the comfortable silence that had befallen the two friends.

"I've been tortured by terrorists and never relinquished what they wanted to hear, PG. What makes you think it would work for you?" Emily asked with an amused grin.

"Because I doubt terrorists used tickling against you. You'd be amazed how well it works."

Emily quirked a brow. "I don't even want to know." She laughed. "Really though Garcia, there's nothing to tell."

Garcia glanced at the clock and made her way over to the bar. Noticing Emily's questioning look, Garcia waved her hand dismissively. "I know it's only 10 in the morning, but that only means it is prime time for a Bloody Mary. I have a feeling it will be much needed."

"Whatever you say." Emily smiled

After Garcia finished making their drinks, the women made their way to Emily's couch. "Now that we're settled, I'm going to need details."

Emily sighed and took a sip of her drink. "Penelope, please don't take this the wrong way, but don't you normally go to JJ for things like this?"

"Honey, let's be honest. When it comes to Jayje's personal life, that woman is a closed fucking book. I figured you'd freak out less talking about it."

"What do you want to know?" Emily couldn't keep the defeat out of her voice.

"Everything." Garcia stated simply.

Emily rolled her eyes at the analyst. "How about you tell me what you already know and I'll fill in the blanks."

"Deal." Garcia sat silently for a moment while processing her thoughts. "I know that there's always been a sexual tension between the two of you. I know that you're both so emotionally closed off to relationships that neither of you probably realized the other shared the same feelings. I know JJ is with Will but keeps him around for only God knows what reason. I know you two started sleeping together around 6 months ago. And I know that you try to act like it's just about sex for a release after a hard case, but I think that you really want to be with her and keep playing her game because you want to hold onto whatever you can with her."

Emily played with the condensation on her glass as she pondered Garcia's words. "You hang out with profilers too much." She muttered. "You pretty much nailed it, so what else is there to know." She added quietly.

"How about we start at the beginning." Garcia suggested.

"Well, about 5 years ago I started at the BAU-"

"Princess," Garcia interrupted the brunette. "I didn't mean the literal beginning. I meant the beginning of your scandalous sexual affair."

Emily winced. "You make it sound so dirty." Garcia only stared at her and Emily rolled her eyes. "It was 6 months ago on a case we had in Arizona."

***Flashback***

_It had been three days since the BAU had landed in Tempe, Arizona. 72 hours since they had been there, and 55 of those had been spent at crime scenes, talking to the victims families and friends, examining bodies, and sprawled out in the room they had been provided at the local precinct trying to piece together a profile._

_"This is ridiculous." Morgan growled after a silence had fallen the team, all of them blankly staring at the information spread out on the table and walls in front of them._

_"Morgan-"_

_Morgan held a hand up to interrupt Hotch. "Hotch, man, we have 5 bodies, one person missing, and nothing to go on. What the hell are we supposed to do?"_

_Hotch looked around at his team, the defeated look in their eyes not unnoticed, and glanced at his watch. "It's 9. Morgan's right. There's nothing else we can do tonight. We're all running on no sleep, so let's take the rest of the night off and meet back here at 7 tomorrow morning."_

_Everyone silently started gathering their stuff and made their way to the SUVs._

_"Is anyone hungry?" Reid asked before they split up into two separate vehicles. "There's a diner in front of the hotel that I was thinking about getting some dinner at when we got back."_

_Everyone shared a glance and realized they hadn't eaten since lunch that afternoon. Agreeing to all get some food together before turning in for the night, they made their way to the diner Reid mentioned._

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><p><em>"I didn't realize how hungry I was until I looked at the menu." JJ said, her stomach growling to back up her statement.<em>

_"Right there with you." Emily chuckled at the blonde._

_After placing their orders, the profilers all began their own separate conversations amongst each other, trying to relax for the first time in 3 days._

_"Why do you think he's targeting single parents?" Reid asked around a mouthful of burger once the food had arrived._

_Emily groaned. "Come on Reid! Can we not have a normal dinner conversation together?"_

_"Prentiss, I don't even remember what a normal dinner conversation consists of." Morgan laughed._

_JJ chuckled and stole a fry off of Emily's plate. "Maybe he's thinking that by killing single parents he's helping the child?"_

_Emily smacked JJ's hand away as she went for another fry. "You didn't order fries when you could have, so why in the hell do you keep stealing mine?" She narrowed her eyes at the blonde._

_"Why would I order my own when I can steal yours?" JJ popped another fry in her mouth and smiled sweetly at the older woman._

_"JJ, what did you mean by 'helping the child'?" Morgan raised a brow. "That hasn't been mentioned yet."_

_"You're right. That's an angle we haven't looked at." Rossi said, wonderment in his voice._

_JJ shrugged. "I just mean that maybe the unsub thinks that by killing the one parent, the kid will be placed in the system and have a chance to land in a home with two parents."_

_Hotch furrowed his brows. "Why haven't we thought of that."_

_"It could be because we haven't had a chance to sit down outside of the precinct or crime scenes to discuss. A new environment clears your mind enough to allow new ideas to form." Reid took a sip of his soda._

_Hotch's phone began to ring and he excused himself to answer it. While he was gone, the friendly playful banter started back up among the team._

_"JJ, I swear to God if you try to sneak one more fry off my plate." Emily left the threat open as she glared at her best friend._

_JJ stuck her tongue out at Emily and took a giant bite of her burger. "God this is amazing." She managed to get out around her mouthful of food, though it was muffled._

_"That's disgusting." Emily crinkled her nose._

_Morgan lazily reached onto Emily's plate and stole a fry. "These are good fries." He dipped it in the brunette's ketchup and smiled at her._

_Emily threw her hands up and leaned back in her chair. "You people are impossible."_

_Rossi laughed. "I feel like a parent around you kids sometimes."_

_"Technically, Rossi, you are old enough-"_

_"Finish that sentence kid, and we're going to have some problems." Rossi interrupted Reid with a threatening look._

_Hotch came back to the table and gave his team a weary look. "Looks like sleep will have to wait. They found another body."_

_A collective sigh was heard as the team threw down some money and made their way back to the SUVs, the defeat obvious in their postures._

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><p><em>Two long grueling days later, the team had finally caught their unsub. In the end, the lives of 7 people had been lost, the unsub included. JJ's hunch had been spot on. The unsub was raised by a single mother who had abused him and blamed him for her husband leaving. He had grown up stealing food to feed himself, watching his mother choose everyone and everything over him, and then when she had suddenly died of a drug overdose, he had been placed in foster care. He had been placed with a loving couple that had treated him like their own and gave him everything he wanted or needed. When they were killed in a car accident the past month, he had snapped.<em>

_"It's 11 at night. There's no point in heading home right now, especially since we're all exhausted. We're going to stay another night here so that we can all get some kind of sleep before we head back to Virginia." Hotch rubbed his hand over his face, not even trying to hide his exhaustion now that the case was over. "We'll meet tomorrow morning at 9."_

_Once the team had gotten back to the hotel, they had all gone their separate ways. Emily noticed JJ answer her phone as she was walking to her room, the frustration evident on the blonde's face._

_"No Will, I'm not going to fucking make it back home tonight. It's fucking 11 at night here, and we haven't slept in days." JJ barked into her phone as she tried to insert the key-card in the door. "Fucking shit." She growled as the key-card fell out of her hand. "Look Will, I'll be home sometime tomorrow. It's not my fault that my job requires me to leave at a moment's notice. I'm tired of fighting about this. If you're going to come visit me, you have to realize this is going to happen." Pinching the bridge of her nose and leaning her forehead against the door, she started lightly banging her head against it. "Will, I'm exhausted, and all I care about right now is sleep. I'm not doing this." She ended the call, bent down to pick up her key, and finally managed to let herself into her room._

_The door slamming made Emily wince, and she let herself into her own room. Throwing some sweats on, the brunette grabbed a couple bottles of liquor from the mini-fridge and made her way down the hallway. Knocking on the door, Emily rocked back and forth on her heels as she waited._

_"What?" JJ snapped as she opened the door. "Oh, Em. Hey." She bit her bottom lip. "Sorry."_

_Emily offered JJ a smile. "It's ok. Can I come in?" She held up the mini bottles of liquor. "I was thinking between what was in my mini-fridge and what's in yours, we could get a nice little buzz to help us sleep."_

_JJ chuckled. "Sounds perfect." She walked back into her room and Emily followed her, shutting the door behind her. Emily couldn't help but look appreciatively at JJ's ass as she was bent over grabbing the liquor in her own fridge. "If we drink all this, we might get more than just a 'nice little buzz'." The blonde stated thoughtfully._

_Emily snapped out of her trance and shrugged. "All I know is I need something to take the edge off. And judging from what I heard in the hallway, you probably could too." Emily made her way over to JJ's bed and sat down. "Want to talk about it?"_

_JJ made a face and plopped down next to Emily. "Maybe after this." She twisted the top off of a bottle of whiskey and held it up. "To finally catching the motherfucker that has prevented us from sleep for 5 days."_

_Emily followed JJ's lead and clinked her bottle against JJ's. "I'll drink to that."_

_After downing the bottle in one gulp, both women made a face as it burned their throats. "Ew." JJ scrunched her nose and made a disgusted face. "I hate whiskey." Leaning back so that she was propped against the headboard, she sighed. "Will came into town on a 'surprise trip' and realized that I was gone. Now he's pissed that I'm not coming back until tomorrow."_

_"Is he an idiot?" Emily wondered aloud._

_"What?" JJ raised a brow at the profiler._

_"I mean, he knows what our job entails. It's not rare that we leave at a moments notice to fly across the county. Why would he try to surprise you without making sure if you were in town or not?"_

_JJ shrugged. "I have no idea." Grabbing another bottle, she downed it. "I understand that he wants to be 'romantic' and shit, but sometimes he drives me crazy."_

_"Can I be honest?"_

_"Go for it." JJ waved her hand._

_"Why are you with him?" Emily saw JJ tense up and she placed a hand on her arm. "I don't mean that in a bad way. It just seems like you've been frustrated with him a lot lately."_

_JJ shrugged. "Can we not talk about this. I know I'm going to have to deal with him tomorrow, and I really just want to try to unwind tonight."_

_Emily smiled. "Of course."_

_The two women continued to drink while they talked about lighthearted things. Laughing and joking, they both began to feel like their normal selves._

_"You were amazing on this case." Emily suddenly said, bringing the reality of what they had been through the past few days back to light. "You nailed it."_

_JJ sighed. "I'm glad that we caught him, but I wish we could have figured it out earlier."_

_"That's how I feel on a lot of the cases that we lose another victim while we're trying to figure it out."_

_"Me too." JJ agreed quietly. Picking at the label on her last bottle, she glanced at the brunette. "You ever just feel so numb after a case like this?"_

_Emily nodded. "Yeah. It doesn't help when we don't get enough sleep to function properly."_

_JJ ran a hand through her hair. "True, but that's not what I mean." She scooted closer to the brunette and averted her eyes. "I mean do you ever feel like no one gets it? That no one else can understand that numbness and relate to the empty feeling you get when you're having to hunt down these monsters. Looking at the destruction that they leave in their wake. Trying to comfort the victim's families through the hardest time in their life."_

_Emily adjusted so that she was facing the blonde. "What are you getting at JJ?"_

_"We get inside these people's heads. To hunt them, we have to think like them. We have to reach into the darkness just to figure out their next move." Blue eyes looked up to meet brown. "Cases like this, I feel like I lose a piece of my humanity. I feel like I am one step closer to being one of them." Pausing, JJ bit her lip. "I don't want to feel like that anymore."_

_"Jayje, I know that this case was tough-"_

_"Make me feel something else." JJ interrupted._

_"What do you-"_

_JJ turned to Emily and placed her hand on the back of her neck, crashing their lips together. Not waiting for a response from the brunette, JJ pushed her tongue into Emily's mouth and kissed her desperately. It only took a second for Emily to process what was_ _happening, and she immediately returned the kiss. Tongues battled for dominance as the women moaned into each others mouths, hands pulling at hair, hands pulling each other closer. JJ moved to straddle Emily, breaking the kiss to bite the older woman's neck. Yanking Emily's hair to tilt her head to give her better access, the blonde ground herself into the brunette's lap._

_"JJ." Emily breathed out. "JJ, stop." Pushing the younger woman so that they could look at each other, they both tried to catch their breath. "What are you doing?"_

_JJ scoffed. "I thought that was pretty clear."_

_"This can't happen." Emily stated bluntly._

_JJ moved her hips to create friction between them, pulling a moan from Emily. "Can we not think about anything but right now. About forgetting. About living in this moment."_

_Emily searched JJ's eyes and felt herself get even more aroused at the lust and passion directed at her in the darkened blue orbs. Not bothering to respond with words, she pulled JJ's head to hers and kissed her again._

_With clothes ripped and strewn about the room, with the blankets and sheets kicked onto the floor, with the mattress twisted on the box spring, with the scratch and bite marks on both their bodies, the two women laid in a heap of tangled limbs holding each other close as they tried to catch their breath. No other words were spoken that night as they both fell into a dreamless sleep._

***End Flashback***

Garcia stared at Emily as she finished her story. "Wow. That's…" She paused trying to find the right words. "Hot."

Emily rolled her eyes. "It helped. That's the first time after a hard case I didn't have nightmares about it."

"Is that how this kept happening? To feel something?"

Emily nodded. "Yes."

Garcia whistled. "When did feelings get involved for you?"

Emily shook her head. "No way. That's enough story telling for today." Glancing at her watch, Emily sighed. "I need to go have lunch with the Ambassador."

"That's no fun." Garcia pouted.

"There's really not much to say, Garcia. If I'm honest with myself, I've had feelings for JJ since I met her."

"If you want my opinion, keep telling her how you feel. I think in the back of her mind she knows that it's not just about sex anymore either."

Emily went wide-eyed. "Garcia, please tell me you didn't hear us last night."

Garcia smirked devilishly. "Honey, I'm all knowing." She winked.

Emily groaned as Garcia started cracking up. "Sometimes I really hate you." Emily shook a finger at the grinning woman.

"I love you too, Cupcake!"

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><p><strong>Let me know what you thought! : )<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**Oh my God... I am SO sorry that this took so damn long to get out. Life got hectic there for a minute. I know this chapter is short, but I wanted to get something out to you all. The next chapter will be a lot longer and get a lot more in depth with everything. Let me know what y'all think about this chapter, even though it's kind of just a tease.**

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><p>The profilers spent the rest of their weekend playing catch up on their responsibilities that had been neglected due to their string of out of town cases over the past month. While they each had taken the time to enjoy their freedom for a couple days, they all did it separately.<p>

Monday morning came all to quickly for each of their liking. By 8 in the morning, most of the team were milling around the bullpen, lightly talking about their weekend and how they hoped that they weren't called out again for at least another few days. Being the most elite unit in the FBI, their job was mostly rewarding, but always exhausting. Their team had the highest solve rate amongst the BAU units so it was inevitable that they were called on the most cases. Hotch and JJ were missing from the group, something that wasn't unusual on Monday's when they would meet to discuss if there were any cases that needed immediate attention that had come through over the weekend.

"How badly do you think Strauss would freak out if we all put in for a vacation at the same time?" Emily smirked at the thought as she propped her feet up on her desk.

"She would probably have an aneurysm." Rossi sniggered. "It would never be approved, but next time she pisses us off we should do it just to see her squirm."

"Oh, it could be approved." Garcia smirked. "You really want to see her freak out, watch when we don't show up for work for a week because while she thinks she denied us our time, the computers show that we've all been cleared to disappear."

"Calm down, beautiful. I can see the wheels in your head turning." Morgan smiled at the plotting computer genius. "As bad as Strauss is, if we give her a heart attack there's a possibility her replacement would be worse. I really don't see what else Strauss could throw at us that we couldn't fight."

"A vacation might actually be good for all of us." Reid piped up. "We tend to run on fumes to get through cases that pile onto each other back to back without a chance to fully recover, and eventually we're going to start making mistakes."

Emily looked around the group. "We should do it. Even if its not for as long as a week." She shrugged. "We deserve it. We all have more than enough vacation time saved up. They can deal without us for a few days while we lounge on a beach." When JJ and Hotch walked up to the group with a serious look on their faces, Emily groaned. "Or not."

"We have a case." Hotch announced. "Conference room in 5."

"Back to reality it is." Morgan sighed as they grabbed their tablets and made their way to the conference room.

"At least we got a couple days off." Rossi mumbled as everyone settled into their chairs and turned their attention to Hotch.

"I know that Penelope usually presents these cases, but this one came directly from Strauss." Hotch stated as he continued to look at the file in his hand without looking up. "That alone makes this top priority to solve as fast as we can."

"She really does always find a way to ruin our lives." Morgan muttered and smirked when Garcia gave him a warning look.

Before Hotch started presenting the case, Emily felt eyes on her and looked over to find JJ staring at her, an intense look in her blue eyes. It was the first time the women had made eye contact that morning, and Emily couldn't help her breath from catching in her throat at the piercing blue staring into her. Trying to lock her walls back in place, Emily only stared back, giving a challenging look to JJ. They only broke eye contact when Hotch started talking, and JJ was the first to turn her attention to their unit chief.

"We have four bodies in Texas." Hotch clicked the remote and four faces popped up on the projector. "Two females and two males. All four bodies show bruising, bleeding, burns, and other forms of what could be torture. Three of the bodies have gunshot wounds, all consistent with an execution style shooting." Switching slides, Hotch showed the pictures of each body. "All the injury patterns are different."

Reid leaned forward in his chair and squinted his eyes. "Every one of the has ligature marks around their necks." He looked at Hotch with questioning eyes. "Were the gunshot wounds postmortem?"

"No. The gunshot wounds are what the ME ruled as cause of death." Hotch grimaced

Emily let out a low whistle. "So we have an unsub who is torturing his victims." Looking at the notes on her tablet, she raised an eyebrow at Hotch when she looked up. "These marks aren't consistent with each other."

Rossi stood up to get closer to the larger images of the victims. "Emily is right. These marks are all at different angles."

Hotch glanced around the room. "As horrible as all of this is, that isn't what concerns me." Flipping to the next slide, it was a picture of all four individuals laughing and smiling. It was obvious that the two couples were all best friends. "They aren't just a group of random victims. They were all friends. This picture was left with the bodies. And a note." Hotch flipped to the last slide and a crude note was displayed.

"'You were too late to save them. Will you be able to save the next ones?'" JJ bit the corner of her lip in thought. "He's playing a game." She simply stated.

"And he's already got a head start. Two more couples were reported missing this morning. We need to get there and try to put an end to this as quickly as possible." Hotch nodded at everyone. "Wheels up in 20."

As everyone rose to grab their bags and get to the jet, JJ couldn't help but get a chill. "Hey, guys." She got everyone's attention as they began to walk out. "I've got a bad feeling about this case."

Rossi gave the newest profiler a small smile. "It'll be ok. We're the best of the best."

JJ furrowed her brow. "That's what scares me." She muttered to herself.


	6. Chapter 6

**I know, I suck at sticking to my update schedule. Life is kind of kicking my ass at the moment, and I'm trying to write whenever I get a chance. No promises, but I will try to update again Monday. This chapter has a lot of case stuff in it, but the next chapter will have more JJ/Emily interaction and team interaction. We're still barely at the beginning of all I have planned, so I hope you guys are all in it for the ride!**

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><p>As usual when the team got a case, Emily would retreat into her mind to start analyzing the information they already had and try to fit pieces together for somewhat of a preliminary profile. Any and every private issue outside of the case would be shoved into her neat little compartments to be dealt with after the case was over. Because of this routine, Emily didn't feel the presence behind her as she was gathering her things from her desk.<p>

"How was the rest of your weekend?" Emily yelped and turned around to come face-to-face with JJ who was wearing a grin. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." The blonde chuckled.

"It's fine. I didn't hear you walk up." Emily turned around again to finish gathering her things.

JJ tried not to let Emily's obvious brush off effect her as she perched herself on the edge of the older woman's desk. "Did you do anything fun?"

Emily glanced over at JJ and shrugged. "Not really."

"Oh." JJ bit her bottom lip and brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah." Emily grabbed her go-bag and slung it over her shoulder. "I'll see you on the jet."

JJ nodded. "Ok." She agreed quietly. As Emily began to walk away, JJ hopped off the desk and began to follow her. "Em." She called out.

Emily closed her eyes and kept her back turned to the younger woman. "Not now, Jennifer." She said quietly and continued to walk away.

"Right." JJ muttered with a sigh as she watched the brunette's retreating form.

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><p>Once everyone had arrived at the jet, they all got comfortable before they started bouncing ideas off of each other. JJ had sat down first, and Emily made it a point to sit in any chair except the open one next to the blonde.<p>

"Ok my pretties, I have some information for you about the missing couples." Garcia's voice came across the jet as soon as they were in the air. "The first group that met an untimely and disgustingly unfortunate demise had been best friends for years. First couple is Brian and Amy Parks, and the second couple is Chad and Ashley Norton. Credit card records show consistent transactions that these four were basically inseparable." Garcia paused as she clicked a few buttons on her keyboard. "What's interesting is that over the past 2 months, it seems that they became rapidly divided. And when I say divided, I don't mean just the two couples, I mean all four as individuals. There are a lot of random purchases that seem separate, so I'm going to try and dig deeper and get more information."

Rossi frowned. "How long were they all friends?"

"Since college it seems. Guys, they bought houses in the same neighborhood. Their weddings were a month apart. They have records of vacations together at least twice a year." Garcia sighed. "Something fishy is going on here, and I'm not a fan of it. Fish are too scaly and smelly." She scrunched her nose in disgust.

JJ ran a hand through her hair. "Garcia, what's the deal on the current missing couples. Is it the same story?"

Garcia nodded. "That's affirmative, my beautiful disaster."

JJ crinkled her nose. "What? You know what, never mind." She grumbled and glanced at Emily, immediately knowing that Garcia was referring to what was going on between her and the brunette.

Emily cringed and tried to avoid meeting JJ's eyes. "Is there any connection between the four couples?"

"Not that I can find. I'll keep looking though." Garcia frowned. "I don't like this. At all. Something feels off."

"JJ said the same thing." Reid said matter-of-factly. "Did you two eat the same thing? It could be a case of food poisoning."

JJ rolled her eyes. "It's not food poisoning. It's just a gut feeling."

"Right. What she said." Garcia said distractedly as she continued to type on her keyboard.

"Baby girl, do you have anything else for us?" Morgan spoke up

"Sorry, not at the moment. I've sent all the addresses and information I do have to your tablets. Good luck, my pretties. Stay safe out there. As in wear your Kevlar at all times." Garcia smiled a nervous smile at them all.

"Thanks Garcia." Hotch said as he over-viewed the information on his tablet. "We'll be careful." Garcia smiled and shut down her connection to the team. "We have four separate houses that need to be looked at. We also have four bodies. We have a multitude of friends and family members that need to be spoken to. We have got to hit the ground running on this."

"Now I have a bad feeling about this case." Rossi muttered. "A bad feeling that we aren't going to be getting any sleep until this is solved."

Emily chuckled. "So how are we doing this, Hotch?"

"Personally, I say we look at the two murdered couples houses first. Then we can go look at the newly missing couples homes and see if anything matches up. When we've finished that, we need to go to the morgue and look at the bodies. After that, we can begin talking to family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and whoever else might have had regular contact. We need to see if there's a connection between the four couples to make sure we can prevent another group from going missing." Hotch made eye contact with everyone on the plane. "This is going to be a circus. We all need to be on our best game."

Rossi studied Hotch and narrowed his eyes at his friend. "What do you know that you aren't telling us, Aaron?"

Hotch stared Rossi down and finally sighed. "Nothing. I don't know anything more than the information we all have. But if JJ and Garcia are both getting a feeling about this case, then I want everyone to trust that."

Emily finally glanced at JJ to find the blonde studying the case information, her brows furrowed as she played with her earring. The brunette couldn't hold back a small smile at the younger woman's nervous habit. Sensing someone's stare, JJ looked up and her eyes locked on Emily's. The women sat staring at each other for a moment trying to break down whatever walls were in place, and when it was obvious they were both going to hold their ground JJ looked away. A moment later Emily's phone buzzed in her pocket.

_**This is ridiculous. We're talking later whether you want to or not.**_

Emily rolled her eyes and responded.

_**There's nothing to talk about. Don't waste your breath.**_

_**Bull shit. Please, Em.**_

_**We have a case, JJ. **_

JJ let out an audible grunt of frustration, gaining Reid's attention. "Are you ok, JJ?" He asked in concern.

JJ jerked her head up to find everyone staring at her. "What? I'm fine."

Morgan looked back and forth between Emily and JJ and could tell that something had just happened. The fact that they were both trying to nonchalantly hide their phones didn't help. "So how are we doing this, Hotch?" Morgan asked before Reid could ask JJ any more questions. "Are we all going to scope out the homes, or are we going to split up?"

Hotch sat quietly for a moment while he thought. "I'd like everyone to be able to go to the houses to make sure we don't miss anything, but we don't have the time to waste when we really need to split up." He glanced at his watch. "By the time we get there it will be around 5. Morgan, Prentiss, I want you to go to the Parks'. Rossi, JJ, go to the Norton's. Reid, you'll go to the morgue with me. I want you four to document anything, and I mean anything, that could be out of the ordinary. Then I want you to meet up, exchange notes, and go to the second set of houses and do the same."

Everyone nodded that they understood.

* * *

><p>Once the team landed, they all separated as planned. Emily was quiet on the drive and barely paid Morgan any attention as she looked out the window. Morgan kept glancing at her occasionally and finally couldn't keep quiet.<p>

"Princess, you've got to get your head in this case." Morgan spoke gently.

Emily turned to look at him with a scowl. "My head is in this case, Morgan. Why wouldn't it be?"

"You've been distracted all day.'

"I have not. I've been analyzing the details we already have before we get more to throw on top of it."

Morgan took his eyes off the road as long as he dared to study the brunette. "Are you sure this doesn't have to do with JJ? What were you two texting about earlier that got her so frustrated?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "Mind your own business, Morgan."

"No can do. Not when it affects two of my best friends and could possibly affect this case."

"Leave it, Derek. Please." Emily begged.

"I will for now." Morgan nodded and stopped the car. "But that's only because we're here."

Emily couldn't help but chuckle.

The profilers walked into the house and started to look around. Taking their time, they examined the living room. The room was kept neat and decorated in a modern tone. There were a few pictures on a bookshelf, and a large black and white painting over the fireplace. The books on the bookshelf were a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and the DVDs on the entertainment center were an array of genres.

"This place is kept neat and organized." Morgan said as he examined the pictures on the bookshelf. "There are pictures of the Parks by themselves, and then there are pictures of them with the Nortons. They really were a close group."

"There's nothing out of place here." Emily sighed. "Let's keep looking."

* * *

><p>Rossi and JJ were slowly finishing up their search of the Norton's house, neither of them finding anything out of place.<p>

"Ok, I'll take the master bedroom and you take the office." Rossi told the blonde as she stood surveying the living room with her hands on her hips.

"There's something missing, Rossi. We're combing right over something." JJ said distractedly.

Rossi studied JJ and leaned against the door-frame. "JJ, are you ok?"

JJ raised an eyebrow as she looked at the older man. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"The tension between you and Prentiss has not gone unnoticed by anyone." Rossi stated bluntly. "We need you both to sort it out and move on. Now."

JJ pinched the bridge of her nose. "Rossi, while I appreciate the concern that everyone seems to have, it's really none of your business."

"That's bull shit. It becomes our business when you two start getting distracted from this case."

"We're not distracted. I mean, I'm not distracted. I can't speak for Prentiss, but if she's distracted it's her own damn fault." JJ said, not being able to bite back the venom from her voice.

Rossi smirked. "Tell her the truth. And tell her how you feel, JJ. Make it easier for all of us."

JJ threw up her hands and stormed past Rossi. "I'll be checking the study. Why don't you do your own job and back the fuck out of my personal business."

Rossi only smiled to himself as he walked to the bedroom to finish their search.

* * *

><p>"Morgan! I think I have something!" Emily called out from the study.<p>

"What is it?" Morgan came around the corner and walked up to the brunette.

Emily held a piece of paper in her hand. "It's a note. It's cleaner than the note that was left for us and the police, but the handwriting is the same."

Morgan squinted his eyes as he read. "'It's time. Your last task and all of this will be over. 8:00.' What the hell does that mean?"

Emily shook her head. "I have no idea."

"Where did you find that?"

"It was in a shoebox." Emily pointed to the closet where the empty shoebox now lay. "Did you find anything?"

"No. The rest of the house is in order."

Emily looked around as a thought hit her. "Derek, do you think the house might be a little too in order?"

"What's on your mind, Prentiss?"

"What if the unsub cleaned up?"

Morgan picked up his phone and dialed. "Rossi, you're on speaker."

"I've got JJ here with me. What did you find?" Rossi asked.

"We found a note. But that's it." Emily spoke up. "How does the house look?"

"What do you mean?" JJ wondered.

"Does it look too clean? Like someone maybe came back and cleaned up?" Morgan suggested.

"Actually…" JJ trailed off. "Yeah, it does. What does the note say?"

"Are you done searching the house?" Emily asked.

"Yes." Rossi spoke up.

"So are we. Meet us at the Reynolds. We'll compare notes." Emily said and walked out of the room.

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes later found Morgan, Rossi, Emily, and JJ all standing in the Reynold's driveway. Emily had bagged the note in a clear evidence bag and the four profilers were all taking turns looking at it trying to find anything else on the note card.<p>

"It's cleaner than the note left for us. But it's the same writing, and the way the ink flows... It's so clean it looks typed, but it's not." JJ said, holding the note close to her face as she examined it. "Maybe Reid can figure something out from it."

"You guys didn't find anything at the Norton's house?" Emily asked.

"Nope. Nothing." JJ sighed and handed the note card to Rossi.

"Did you search everywhere?" Emily looked at JJ.

JJ took a deep breath and stared at Emily. "Of course we did."

"Did you look in random places most people wouldn't?" Emily prodded.

"I know how to do my fucking job, Prentiss." JJ snapped.

"I'm only asking because I found that note in a shoebox. I'm not questioning your abilities, Jareau, I'm just making sure that nothing went unsearched." Emily bit out, fists clenched at her side and her jaw set.

"I have an idea!" Rossi interrupted the two women before things could escalate. "Morgan and I are going to go to the Overton's, and you two are going to search the Reynold's house." He glared at the two women and then started to walk towards one of the SUVs. "Let's go, Morgan." He threw out over his shoulder.

Morgan looked at the two women who were locked in a staring contest and shook his head. "Look guys, I don't know what the fuck happened over the past week that has created this tension, but you need to deal with it. This has never effected your work before, and I suggest you keep it that way before Hotch does something about it. Pull your heads out of your asses and do your job."

As Morgan walked away, Emily flinched as his words sunk in. JJ seemed to deflate at the man's words also.

"Let's do this and get it over with." JJ said quietly, the fight gone from her voice. Giving one last look at Emily, the blonde walked toward the front door.

"JJ!" Emily called out after a moment. The younger woman turned to look at her with an unreadable look in her eyes. "We need to talk later. Morgan and Rossi are right."

JJ gave a quick nod. "I know."

* * *

><p><strong>Let me know what you thought and if you're still with me. Not to be a review whore, but they do motivate me to update faster.<br>**


	7. Chapter 7

**Holy goodness! Thank you SO much to everyone who has reviewed. You guys seriously inflate my ego. I'm glad everyone is enjoying this. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Sorry, I've had a lot of coffee today and I'm kind of cracked out at the moment. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

><p>It was around 8:30 when the team finally made it back to the precinct to compare notes and discuss what they had found. Emily and JJ were the last to arrive, and they found everyone else seated around the table with food. There were things splayed out over the table, and pictures hung up on the boards. Around the mouthfuls of burgers, the team was discussing what they had found.<p>

"We got food for you guys." Reid smiled and pointed at the unopened burger wrappers on the table.

"Thanks, Spence." JJ smiled gratefully and grabbed a burger before sitting down.

"I'm going to hand this over and see if they can pull anything off of it before we put it up." Emily held up the evidence bag and turned around to find the local detective on the case.

Morgan watched the way JJ's gaze lingered on the brunette as she walked away. "You ok?" He asked, making JJ jump and blush slightly.

"I'll be better after I eat this." JJ sent him a disarming smile as she took a giant bite of her burger.

"Did you find anything at the Reynolds?" Rossi asked the blonde, not bothering to hide the look of disgust on his face at how much food she just shoved in her mouth.

JJ swallowed and took a sip of her soda, shaking her head. "No. But it was like the others in that it looked way too clean. Find anything at the Overton's?"

Rossi sighed. "Nope. Same as you." He glanced at the photos spread out on the table and boards. "We're missing something."

JJ nodded. "I know. I still feel like we're combing right over something." She turned to look at Reid and Hotch. "What about the bodies? Anything significant?"

Emily chose this moment to walk back in and sit down next to JJ, reaching over her to grab the only burger left on the table. "God, I'm starving." JJ cleared her throat at Emily's close proximity and took another sip of her soda. Emily smirked at JJ's obvious discomfort and unwrapped her burger. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing. We were just about to go over what we found." Reid spoke up. "The bodies were all covered with injuries. Some of the same nature, some not. All four had bruising, cuts, ligature marks, and gunshot wounds. One of the men and one of the women had some broken ribs, the other man and other woman had other broken bones."

"They also had defensive wounds, which made us believe that they possibly fought each other. Their injury patterns line up with that theory." Hotch jumped in. "They all had marks around their wrists consistent with fighting against restraints."

"Did we ever figure out about the ligature marks?" Rossi wondered.

Reid hopped up and made his way to the board and grabbed a dry erase marker. "I was trying to think of that earlier, but didn't have a chance to work it out." He started to draw four stick figures at different heights. "If you line the four victims up and calculate their heights, it's possible that because of the different angles of the marks that they weren't strangled by the unsub, but by each other."

Emily raised a brow. "I don't know about you, but something drastic would have to happen to make me turn on my spouse or my best friend. Especially to the point that I would beat the shit out of them or strangle them."

Rossi smirked. "I don't know, there were times I would have liked to do that to my ex wives."

Hotch chuckled. "Prentiss is right. Something would have had to make these people turn on each other." He sighed and glanced at the clock on the wall. "There was nothing on the bodies that gave us any type of clue. It's too late to begin interviews with people, so why don't we finish this up and head to the hotel. Get a good nights sleep and get a fresh start tomorrow."

Reid finished his drawing and stood back to look at it. "Guys, I think I have something. I was right. The unsub wasn't the one who strangled the victims. They did do it to each other." He pointed at the stick figures. "The women did it to each other, and so did the men."

JJ scrunched her nose up and bit her lip. "I agree with Emily. Something horrible would have to happen to make me do that to my best friend."

Morgan got up to look closer at Reid's drawing and the pictures of the bodies. "What is this?" He pointed to the neck of one of the victims. "I noticed this earlier and just remembered."

Reid sighed. "It's a puncture wound."

"We're waiting on the toxicology report to come back to confirm if they were drugged." Hotch added.

Morgan rubbed his head. "Man, this is fucked up."

"I still don't like this case." JJ muttered under her breath.

"And you like the others we work?" Emily raised a brow at the blonde.

JJ glared at Emily. "Of course not. But this one feels different."

Hotch and Rossi shared a look and both stood up. "We're done here." Hotch announced. "Everyone go get some rest."

"I need a drink." Morgan sighed. "Reid, you want to grab a drink with me?"

Reid glanced at his watch. "I don't know. I was going to go read and go to bed early."

Morgan clapped his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "We're getting a drink. You can read later." He laughed.

"Well ok then." Reid smiled as he and Morgan walked out of the room.

"JJ, Prentiss." Hotch called out as the women smiled at Morgan and Reid and began to leave. "Whatever is going on between you two, figure it out or put it aside until we're don't this case. Do you understand me?"

JJ shot Rossi a scowl. "Yes sir." She answered Hotch and stormed out of the room.

Emily sighed and shot her boss a small smile. "Yes sir. We apologize."

"It's alright. I just need everyone focused on this case." Hotch nodded as a dismissal.

As Emily followed JJ out of the room, Hotch turned to Rossi. "I have no idea what to do about those two."

"Maybe we should stick them in a locked room together for an extended period of time and see what happens." Rossi shook his head with a laugh. "Do you think they'll ever admit they're in love with each other?"

"God I hope so." Hotch smiled.

* * *

><p>"Jayje, wait up." Emily called out to the younger woman as she walked out of the precinct.<p>

"What?" JJ turned around and snapped.

"Ok, I don't know what the fuck your issue is, but this ends now." Emily growled as she caught up to JJ. "Let's go." She grabbed her elbow and dragged her to one of the SUVs.

"Let go of me, Prentiss." JJ yanked her arm away. "I really don't feel like dealing with you right now."

"I don't care if you feel like it or now." Emily raised her voice. "I'm done playing by your rules. I'm so sick of your bull shit Jennifer."

JJ raised her eyebrows. "My bull shit?" She scoffed, her voice also rising in volume.

"Yes. You're so fucking full of it. You think the whole fucking world revolves around you. I hate to break it to you Princess, but you're not all you're cracked up to be." Emily took a step close to JJ and got in her face.

"You better get out of my face before I make you." JJ narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists at her side.

"I'm about two seconds away from telling you to fuck off completely." Emily spat.

"You know what, that's fine by me. I'm tired of you following me around and acting like we're something more than just fuck buddies." JJ put her hands on Emily's shoulders and gave her a push.

Emily opened her mouth to respond when she was grabbed by the shoulder and pulled back. "Get in the car and go. Now." Morgan hissed in her ear.

"Get off me, Derek." Emily shoved him aside and got in JJ's face again. "You won't have to worry about that anymore, because as of right now, you mean absolutely nothing to me. " Morgan tried to pull Emily back again and she turned and got in his face. "Back the fuck up before I hurt you." She snarled.

Morgan backed away with his hands in the air and watched as Emily got in the SUV, slammed the door, and peeled out of the parking lot. Shaking his head, he turned to JJ. "JJ, I-"

JJ held up a hand, her face red as she realized that they had gained the attention of the local police officers. "Please." She whispered, her voice failing her. "Please, Derek. don't." She closed her eyes and put a hand to her forehead.

Hotch stormed out of the precinct and immediately walked up to the group. "Agent Jareau, a word please?"

"Hotch, I'm sorry." JJ tried to slyly wipe a tear from her cheek before turning to her boss. "It won't happen again. I promise."

Rossi and Reid joined the small group and look at Morgan and Hotch for answers as to what was going on. "Is there a problem?" Rossi asked.

"Jesus Christ. Can you people please just butt out of it?" JJ hissed, trying to keep her voice quiet as not to gain an audience again.

"Go to the hotel and stay there. That is an order." Hotch gave JJ a hard look. "And go ahead and stay there until I call you tomorrow. I don't want you on this case with the way you're acting."

JJ went wide-eyed. "Hotch-"

"Now, Agent Jareau." Hotch snapped and walked away.

JJ ran a hand through her hair and looked at Morgan, Reid, and Rossi. "I guess I'll see you all later." She whispered and began walking away.

The three men shared a look and sighed. Morgan pulled out his phone and walked away and Reid went to follow JJ.

"JJ, wait." Reid chased after her. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Spence." JJ tried to smile. "I just need some sleep."

"Can I take you back to the hotel at least?"

"I think I'm just going to walk. Clear my head." JJ put a hand on his arm. "Thank you though."

Reid nodded and watched as she walked away. Morgan and Rossi came up behind him and watched her retreating form.

"Now I need a drink." Rossi mumbled.

* * *

><p>Emily had just made it to the hotel when her phone rang. She ignored it, not wanting to deal with anyone. Hopping out of the SUV, she immediately made her way to the hotel bar. Sitting down on one of the barstools, she signaled for the bartender.<p>

"What can I get for you?" The young man asked and looked her up and down, blatantly checking her out.

Emily scoffed. "Your finest scotch. Neat. And my eyes are up here, you little fuck." She snapped her fingers and pointed to her eyes.

The kid had the decency to blush as he met her eyes and he cleared his throat. "Yes ma'am." He turned and began to make her drink.

Emily's phone rang again, and she answered it without looking at the ID. "Prentiss." She took a sip of her drink as it was set in front of her, and then downed it. She signaled for another.

"Princess, you are in a heap of trouble with Boss Man." Garcia's voice came across the line. "What the hell are you thinking?"

"Penelope, I love you, but now is NOT the time for this." Emily groaned.

"It's never a good time, so you're just going to have to deal with it." Garcia snapped, catching Emily's attention. "You need to get your act together. JJ is already pulled off this case for an indefinite amount of time, and I have a feeling that Hotch will be telling you the same thing any minute."

"What?" Emily ran a hand through her hair. "Are you serious?"

"You caused a scene in front of the entire police department. There are reasons there are rules about fraternization amongst agents, and you two are proving why. You're jeopardizing this case and you don't even realize it."

"That wasn't my fault." Emily said, knowing as soon as it was out of her mouth that it was a lame excuse.

"Unless one of you is looking to be transferred out of the BAU, I suggest you both get a fucking grip. Talk it out, fuck it out, I don't really care, but deal with it." Garcia hung up.

Emily pulled the phone away from her ear and gave it a shocked look. Not used to hearing Garcia so frustrated and blunt, she shook her head as she swirled her drink and took a sip. Setting the phone down, she sat in thought for a few moments, lost in her own little world.

She was broken out of her thoughts as the bartender set another drink in front of her. "I didn't order another." She raised a brow

The bartender pointed down the bar. "It's from him."

Emily followed the young mans finger to find an attractive man sitting at the end of the bar. Sending Emily a dazzling smile, the man gave her a little wave of acknowledgment.

Emily turned to the bartender. "Can you please tell him that as appreciative I am, I'm definitely not interested."

"Tell him yourself." He muttered under his breath and nodded his head behind her.

Emily inwardly groaned and turned around, coming face to face with the man. "Hi. I'm Robert." He held his hand out.

Emily conjured up a half smile. "Thank you for the drink, but I'm not interested."

Smile not faltering, Robert sat down next to her. "Just like that? You haven't even given me a chance."

Emily had to refrain from rolling her eyes. "No offense, but I can tell you right now that you're only wasting your breath." Before Robert could respond, the brunette's phone rang. "Excuse me." She said and quickly reached for her phone, thankful for the interruption. "Prentiss."

"You're off this case until further notice." Hotch immediately said.

"Hotch-"

"There is absolutely no excuse for what transpired between you and Agent Jareau tonight, especially in front of the local police. I will not have the members of my team ruining the BAU's reputation over a lover's spat." Hotch interrupted in a hard tone. "I will let you know if I decide to put you back on this case or send you home."

Emily rubbed her temple to try to fend off the oncoming headache and took a deep breath. "Yes sir, I understand." She said quietly. "For the record, I apologize for my earlier actions."

"Fix this, Emily. Fix it before it costs you both your jobs." Hotch said, tone lightening up a little before he hung up.

Emily sighed and set her phone down again. Putting her head in her hands, the profiler took a couple deep breaths.

"Are you ok?" Robert asked from beside her.

Completely forgetting about the man, Emily slightly jumped when she felt his hand on her shoulder.

"She's not interested." A voice came from behind them.

Emily spun around with an incredulous look to find a seething JJ with her arms crossed. "What the hell are you doing here." Emily asked.

"Beat it." JJ growled at the man.

Robert looked between the two women. "Ah, I understand now." He shook his head and walked away.

JJ took his vacated seat and look at the bartender. "I need a shot of something strong. I don't care what it is." She ran a hand through her hair. "Better yet, make it three."

The bartender scrambled to make the blonde her shots, not wanting to incur the wrath that was radiating off of her in waves.

"What are you doing here?" Emily repeated her earlier question.

"Drinking. Same as you." JJ didn't look at the brunette as she watched her shots being poured.

"Did you purposely come looking for me?"

JJ turned to face Emily. "You do realize that I am staying in this hotel also, right?"

"That doesn't answer my question."

JJ took the three shots back to back as they were set down in front of her. "God." She made a disgusted face and grabbed the lime that was also set in front of her. Wiping her mouth, she turned to face Emily. "I got pulled off of this case."

"So did I." Emily signaled the bartender for another round of shots.

"I figured since I don't have to work in the morning, I might as well get as fucked up as possible."

Emily only grunted in response and both women fell silent while they drank. Not paying attention to the clock as they continued to order round after round, the tension in the air thickened with each drink they consumed.

"Sorry ladies, but we're about to close up." The bartender quietly said with an apologetic smile.

Emily looked at her watch. "It's only 11."

The kid shrugged. "Hotel policy. There's a bar down the street that's open until 2 if you want to continue."

JJ's phone rang, startling her. "Jareau." She answered without looking at the caller ID. Blue eyes widened as the caller talked, and JJ stood up. Wobbling slightly, she threw her card on the bar top. "Excuse me, I have to take this." She covered the phone and apologized to Emily and the bartender. "Put hers on my card." She nodded at Emily and walked away.

Emily grit her teeth and pulled her own card out of her wallet. "There's no need for that. Just split it." She handed both cards to the young man after picking JJ's card up off of the bar.

Emily couldn't help but turn to watch the blonde as she quietly spoke into the phone outside the doors of the hotel bar. The array of emotions displayed on the younger woman's face made Emily frown in concern. JJ started pacing back and forth and alternated between pinching the bridge of her nose and playing with her earring. Emily tried to look away to give JJ some privacy and to convince herself that she didn't care, but when JJ's stopped pacing and her eyes started filling with tears, Emily couldn't ignore it any longer. As much as she fought it, she cared too much about the blonde to act like she didn't.

Quickly signing both of the credit card receipts, Emily threw the papers down. "Thank you very much for everything."

Picking up the signed copies, the bartenders eyes went wide. "Umm… Miss? Not to sound ungrateful, but-"

"Take it and go have fun." Emily interrupted, knowing the boy was talking about the large tip she left him. "Thank you again." She smiled at him.

"Thank you." He returned the smile. Nodding his head toward JJ, he rubbed the back of his neck. "Not to get involved and not to make assumptions, but I think she really cares about you."

Turning to look at the blonde, Emily sighed. "We'll see about that." Hopping off her barstool, she slowly made her way to JJ. Coming up next to her, Emily put a hand on her shoulder to let her know she was there since JJ's back was to her.

JJ immediately tensed at the touch. "I umm, I have to go. I'll call you later." She hung up the phone and spun around to face Emily.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt." Emily took a step back and shoved her hands in her pockets. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." JJ cleared her throat and began walking away. "I'll see you later."

"JJ, wait." Emily fell into step beside her. "If you need to talk, I'm here."

JJ stopped walking and scoffed. "Seriously? You're going to pull the concerned friend card right now?"

Emily gave her a sad smile. "I'm not trying to pull anything. I know things have been tense between us, and as much as I don't want to care, I do."

JJ shook her head. "This is nothing you can help with. But thanks for the concern." She bit out sarcastically.

Anger bubbling back to the top, Emily turned in the opposite direction of JJ. "Fuck you too." She muttered under her breath.

"What did you just say?" JJ's anger was also evident in her voice.

"Nothing. I'm going to that bar down the street." Emily threw out over her shoulder.

JJ threw her hands up in frustration and made her way to the elevator as Emily stormed out of the doors of the hotel.

* * *

><p>It was 1:30 in the morning when JJ was woken up by knocking at her door. Groaning she slowly opened her eyes and glanced at the clock. "What in the hell." She grumbled to herself and threw the covers off of her. She had only fallen asleep 30 minutes earlier after consuming the liquor that was in her mini-fridge and she stumbled as she tried to make her way to the door. Flinging it open, she was not expecting someone to barge right in.<p>

"Emily! What in the world-"

JJ was cut off as she was roughly shoved up against the door she had just closed and lips crashed onto hers. Without a second though, the blonde returned the searing kiss and wrapped her arms around the brunette's neck, pulling their bodies closer. As tongues battled for dominance, Emily leaned down to grip JJ behind her legs and lifted her up, JJ immediately wrapping her legs around Emily's waist. Oxygen quickly becoming an issue, Emily pulled away from JJ and sucked in a few deep breaths before turning her attention to JJ's neck.

JJ tilted her head back and wound her hands in long brown hair as Emily placed a mix of kisses and bites along her neck. Moaning when Emily sucked and bit down on her pulse point, JJ grabbed Emily's face and brought their lips back together. Pushing Emily back, JJ put her feet back on the ground and pushed the brunette toward the bed.

As soon as the bed hit the back of her knees, Emily fell back, pulling JJ on top of her. JJ then began her own assault on Emily's neck and entwined their legs, pressing her thigh roughly in-between Emily's legs and rocking forward.

Emily let out a gasp at the feeling and pulled JJ closer to her trying to create more friction. JJ pulled back and placed her hands on either side of the brunettes head to hold herself up as she looked into Emily's eyes.

"What are you doing here?" JJ asked breathlessly

Emily smirked and raised her brows. "I thought that was pretty damn obvious, Jennifer."

JJ involuntarily shuddered at the seductive tone in Emily's voice. "After everything that's happened, I just-"

"Will you, for once today, just shut up and let me fuck you?" Emily growled before leaning up and catching JJ's lips again.

Moaning as Emily rolled them over and trailed her hand down JJ's stomach, the blonde gripped the bottom of Emily's shirt and pulled it over Emily's head. Emily rid JJ of her pajama bottoms as JJ worked the button on her jeans. As soon as the rest of their clothing had been discarded, JJ rolled them back over and gasped at the feeling of skin on skin. Emily's thigh found it's way between her legs, and JJ ground herself against it as Emily did the same to her thigh. Falling into a rhythm, the women shared a passionate kiss, swallowing each others moans.

When Emily got tired of the teasing, she sat up and flipped them over so that she was hovering over the blonde, one hand on the mattress beside JJ's head so that she could brace her weight on it as she used her other hand to shove two fingers into JJ.

JJ let out a guttural groan at the intrusion and gripped Emily's back as the brunette began to pump in and out of her. As Emily's thumb flicked JJ's clit, the blonde gasped and reached down to return the favor.

Not expecting it, Emily moaned as JJ entered her. Leaning down, Emily kissed JJ, biting her bottom lips as they found a rhythm again.

JJ felt Emily curl her fingers, her body instantly tensing in pleasure. Not wanting to be outdone, the blonde entered another finger into Emily and used her thumb to tease the brunette's clit.

Both women came hard and fast at the same time, Emily falling onto JJ as they gasped for air. JJ wrapped her arms around the brunette, holding her close as she closed her eyes.

When Emily pulled back to look the blonde in the eye, she was shocked to find tears. "JJ?"

JJ smiled a watery smile at the other woman. "I'm sorry."

Emily tried to roll off of JJ but JJ held her in place. "Did I hurt you?"

"No." JJ shook her head. "I umm…" She closed her eyes before initiation eye contact again. "I need to tell you something."

"Ok?"

JJ leaned up to capture Emily's lips in a soft kiss. "Em, I've been lying to you. To everyone."

"About what? Are you ok?"

JJ nodded. "I need you to know that I'm not just saying this because I'm drunk. Because to be honest, I'm really not that drunk anymore."

"Jennifer, what's going on."

JJ took a deep breath. "I can't keep lying to you. You're right, Em. You've been right this whole time. This isn't just about sex between us."

Emily furrowed her brow. "Why are you saying this now? What about Will?"

JJ smiled. "I'm not with Will, Emily. I haven't been for a long time."

Emily could only stare at the blonde, words escaping her. "Huh?" Was the only thing that came out of her mouth.

* * *

><p><strong>So... Was anyone expecting that little tidbit of information? Haha<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**Wow. Just, wow. You guys are all ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. So many reviews on the last chapter that kept me smiling. Thank you all so much! This chapter is a little more fluffy than serious, so enjoy it while you can… **

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><p>When an insistent knocking on the door broke through the sleep that Emily had finally succumbed to, she took a deep breath to try to fend off the headache she knew would be there when she opened her eyes. A frustrated groan came from her chest, and she cracked an eye open to see blonde hair spread out over her as she felt arms tighten around her.<p>

"Jayje, someone is knocking on the door." Emily whispered, her voice hoarse from the previous night.

"Don't care." JJ mumbled into Emily's chest.

"JJ, open the door." Morgan's voice rang out along with a few more knocks on the door.

"No!" JJ yelled, unmoving from her position.

"I need to talk to you." Morgan answered.

"Don't care!" JJ repeated her earlier statement. After a moment of silence, JJ gave a content sigh. "Thank God."

The shrill ringing of a phone made the blonde huff in frustration and finally sit up. Emily held back a chuckle at the way JJ's hair was in complete disarray. Not moving from her spot on top of Emily, JJ stretched her arm out to reach her phone.

"What?" JJ asked, exasperation not hidden in her voice. "Alright, hold on a sec." Throwing the phone back on the nightstand, JJ pushed herself off of Emily and grabbed her pj's that had been discarded around the room the night before. "Throw some clothes on. Morgan needs to talk to me."

Emily shook her head. "You deal with him. I'll hide under the covers and act like I'm not here." She yawned as she pulled the comforter over her head and buried herself under it.

JJ rolled her eyes and walked over to the door. Cracking it open, she poked her head out. "What, in the hell, is so important that you're pounding on my door so early?"

"JJ, it's 10." Morgan raised his eyebrows and pushed his way into JJ's room.

"Derek!" JJ's eyes widened as he made his way to the bed.

"Look JJ, I know you're upset about last night, but we should talk." Morgan sat down on the edge of the bed and gave JJ a sympathetic look.

"Morgan, I really appreciate the older brother act, but this really isn't a good time." JJ bit her lip, praying that Emily stayed still.

Morgan cracked a smile. "It's not an act. And I'm staying here until we talk about this."

JJ rubbed her forehead in frustration. "Can we go grab some food at least? I have a massive hangover."

Morgan glanced around the room and noticed the empty liquor bottles. "I can see that."

"Great, we should go." JJ smiled big and made her way towards Morgan to drag him out of the room.

Morgan tilted his head and squinted at the blonde. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. I told you. I'm hungry and hung over." JJ said quickly.

"Have you heard from Emily?"

"Nope."

"What's up with you, Jayje? You're irritable, nervous, anxious." He trailed off. "You're hiding something." He scoffed.

JJ rolled her eyes. "We all made a deal a long time ago to not profile each other, Morgan."

Morgan scooted back on the bed and immediately jumped up when he heard a squeak. He stared at the pile of blankets with wide eyes as JJ covered her eyes and shook her head. Morgan looked back and forth from the bed to JJ, and his eyes narrowed as he slowly reached for the edge of the comforter.

"Derek, I wouldn't-" JJ yelled and held her hand out to stop Morgan. "Do that." She muttered as he ripped the comforter back, exposing Emily who was wrapped only in the sheet trying to cover herself up.

"Morgan!" Emily exclaimed and rolled off the other side of the bed onto the floor to hide herself better.

"Holy fucking Jesus!" Morgan covered his eyes and blindly threw the comforter where he last saw Emily. Backing up, he ran into the dresser, knocking a book off the end. Blindly trying to find his way out of the room, he continued to run into things.

"I'm covered, Derek. You can open your eyes before you break everything." Emily couldn't help but laugh.

Morgan slowly removed his hand from his eyes and looked anywhere but Emily. He cleared his throat as he found a spot on the floor to stare at. "I am so sorry, Prentiss. I had no idea you were there."

"Obviously." JJ muttered.

"What's going on guys?" Reid suddenly walked through the door that JJ had left open. "I heard yelling."

Emily groaned and JJ blushed even more than she already was. "This is not happening." She mumbled repeatedly.

"Emily, why are you wrapped up in a blanket?" Reid asked innocently. It only took about two seconds for it to register in his mind, and he immediately turned around to face the opposite wall. "You know what, I'll be downstairs. Hotch wanted to talk to everyone." He practically ran from the room.

Morgan rubbed the back of his head and nodded toward where Reid just ran out. "I'm going to follow him. I'll tell Hotch you two will meet us in a little bit."

"I'll call you to see where we need to meet you." JJ said to Morgan as she rubbed her temples.

As soon as Morgan left, the two women were left staring at each other.

"Well that was…interesting." Emily sighed and sat down on the bed heavily.

JJ glared at the brunette. "This is all your fault. If you had just put some damn clothes on when I asked, that could have all been avoided."

Emily raised a brow at the younger woman. "All my fault?"

JJ walked over to Emily and put her hands on her hips as she leveled a murderous gaze on the brunette. "Yes, all your fault."

Emily reached out and grabbed the blonde, yanking her onto the bed and on top of her. "You have to admit, that was kind of funny." She whispered before placing hot, open mouthed kisses right below her ear.

JJ bit back a moan and pulled back to look at Emily. "Morgan just caught you naked. In my bed. And you think this is funny?"

Emily nodded with a smile. "Yes, I do."

JJ rolled her eyes as the corners of her mouth turned up into a smile also. "Only you."

Emily smirked as she caught JJ's lips in a kiss. "They can do without us for a few more minutes."

"I couldn't agree more." JJ took Emily's lower lip between her teeth and flipped them over.

* * *

><p>An hour and a half later, Hotch checked his watch for the umpteenth time. Glancing around at the men in the room, he leveled Morgan with a frustrated look. "I thought you said that you told them I wanted to see them."<p>

Morgan took a deep breath and cursed the two women profilers in his head. "I did. They said they would call me to find out where to meet us as soon as they were ready."

"I'll call them." Reid said calmly, trying to keep the peace. As he went to reach for his phone, Morgan's phone began to ring.

"It's JJ." Morgan sighed in relief as he checked the caller ID. "Where the hell are you?" He answered the phone without a greeting. "We're at the precinct. Ok. Ok, we'll see you in a few." Hanging up, he rubbed a hand over his face. "They're on their way."

Rossi yawned. "Finally." He grumbled

"What's going to happen with them, Hotch?" Reid asked their superior.

Hotch frowned. "We need them on this case, but I won't put up with their bickering. I will send them home if I need to."

Morgan tried to contain a smirk. "Believe me, Hotch, I don't think we'll have to worry about that anymore."

Hotch and Rossi shared a look as they caught Reid go red and turn his attention to his fingernails.

"And why is that?" Rossi wondered, squinting at the two younger men.

"Let's just say I think they made up." Morgan laughed

Before anyone could say anything more, JJ and Emily breezed through the doors, their arms heavy with bags from a local deli.

"We are so sorry we're late." JJ huffed as she threw the bags on the table. "We waited for a good 45 minutes at the damn deli waiting for them to finish our order. Please accept this gourmet lunch as an apology for yesterday." She scrunched her nose. "And today."

Hotch stared down his two female team members. "Apology accepted. We need you on this case, so you're both cleared for work again. Please just make sure to keep things professional from now on or I will suspend you."

"Yes sir." Emily said quickly. "It won't happen again."

Hotch gave a quick nod of acceptance and dug into the bag. "I'm starving." He grinned.

As everyone spread out the food and got comfortable, Morgan's phone rang. "Yeah Baby Girl, you're on speaker."

"That'll be $20 dollars for each extra person." Garcia dropped her voice into a seductive tone.

JJ rolled her eyes. "I had no idea you were such a cheap date or I would have asked you out a long time ago." She deadpanned.

"As much as I love you Jayje, I charge extra if you don't have a pen-"

"Garcia!" Hotch interrupted the analyst. "Is there a reason for this call? A professional reason, I should clarify."

Garcia laughed. "Yes sir. Ok, I found something interesting on my search of everyone's credit card records. One thing that connects these four couples is that they all had separate bank accounts. They did have joint accounts, but they all had separate accounts on the side. With the amount of money in each, it looks like individual spending accounts."

"Were all the accounts at the same bank?" Reid piped up.

"Hold your horses, Boy Wonder, I'm getting there." Garcia paused and the faint sound of a keyboard clicking could be heard. "Three of the couples had the same bank, but different branches. Some digging showed a couple similar purchases though. Hardware stores, clothing departments, sporting goods stores… I never would have noticed if I didn't compare everyone's purchases."

Rossi leaned back in his seat. "Odd." He took a sip of his soda. "Good work, Penelope. It's too bad we don't have any other links."

Just then, a local officer knocked on the door-frame to the room the profilers were set up in. "Excuse me, but this just came for you." He held up an envelope.

The team all gave each other a look before Reid quickly hopped up to grab the envelope from the officer. Carefully holding it by a napkin, the doctor gently opened it. As soon as he saw the contents, he turned to the officer. "Who brought this. Are they still here?"

"It came from a little boy." The officer frowned. "He ran as soon as he handed it to one of the other officers."

"Reid, what is it?" Emily asked.

Reid looked up at the team before pulling out a note card. "It's another note. It says 'You're boring me.' It has a time and address."

"We're boring him?" Emily scoffed.

"Garcia, can you run an address and let me know what kind of building this is?" Hotch spoke to the phone.

"Hit me Boss Man." Garcia responded quickly. Reid rattled off the address and sat back down. "Ok crime fighters, the address leads to an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Austin. It's privately owned, and it's been condemned for 3 years."

Hotch sighed. "I don't like it, but this is our only lead right now. Garcia, what kind of factory was it?"

"Pharmaceuticals. Yikes, they were all trial drugs." Garcia whistled. "They lost funding and had to shut down."

"Did the toxicology reports come back yet?" Morgan wondered.

"Unknown drug in each of the bodies." Rossi sighed. "Makes sense. If the drugs were left behind when the building was closed up, this guy had an all access pass if he's the new building owner."

"Garcia, find me everything you can on the factory owners. The previous and the current." Hotch frowned and looked at the note.

"Yes sir. Garcia out."

"What are you thinking, Aaron." Rossi asked Hotch.

"I'm not sure yet. But this is a lead, even if it's small. He's getting impatient and arrogant. He's going to mess up somehow. We need to make a plan for tonight."

JJ went wide-eyed. "We're actually going to play into this guys hands? This has trap written all over it."

"We don't have anything else." Hotch frowned. "Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do. Which is why we're going to sit here and devise a plan to make sure this goes down as smoothly as possible. Everyone take 15 to stretch your legs and come up with some ideas." Hotch stood up and walked out of the room to find the local detectives.

Everyone stood up to go walk around, and Morgan caught Emily's arm. "Prentiss, wait up."

"I'll meet up with you in a minute." Emily told JJ when JJ hesitated to wait for the brunette.

Once it was just Emily and Morgan left in the room, he sat down and propped his feet up on the table. Clasping his hands behind his head, he leaned back and gave his partner a shit eating grin. "So… Naked in JJ's bed? What the hell happened last night?"

Emily blushed and cleared her throat. "Let's just say we worked things out."

"I'll say." Morgan laughed. "Care to share?"

Emily smiled as she thought back to the night before.

***Flashback***

_JJ took a deep breath. "I can't keep lying to you. You're right, Em. You've been right this whole time. This isn't just about sex between us."_

_Emily furrowed her brow. "Why are you saying this now? What about Will?"_

_JJ smiled. "I'm not with Will, Emily. I haven't been for a long time."_

_Emily could only stare at the blonde, words escaping her. "Huh?" Was the only thing that came out of her mouth._

_JJ chucked. "Emily, you'll catch bugs." She whispered affectionately as she reached up to close the brunette's mouth._

_Emily shook her head and stared at JJ. "How long?"_

_JJ furrowed her brow. "How long what?"_

"_How long have you and Will been broken up?" Emily made a move to sit up and JJ followed suit. Pulling the covers up over them, Emily leaned back against the headboard. "How long have you been letting me think that this is nothing?"_

_JJ sighed. "Will and I have been broken up for a while."_

"_How long, Jennifer?" _

"_6 months." JJ winced. "We, umm." She cleared her throat. "I broke up with him the day after we first hooked up." She whispered._

_Emily stared at JJ, brown eyes wide. "You've been letting me think that you've had a boyfriend this entire time?_

_JJ nodded slowly. "I'm so sorry Emily. I didn't know how to handle my feelings for you. I figured it would be easier to let you believe that I was unavailable so that I didn't have to put a label on this. On us."_

"_I don't really know how to feel about all this, Jayje." Emily sighed and ran a hand through her tousled hair. _

"_I should have told you sooner. The only reason I made a move on you that first night was because I knew I was breaking it off with Will anyway. Granted, that doesn't make me seem like the best person, and even through I don't regret my choice, I should have waited until it was over between me and him before acting on my feelings for you. I just, I needed to feel, I was drunk, and I couldn't deny my attraction to you any longer. I am so sorry that my selfishness has caused all of this."_

_Emily crinkled her nose. "Wait, if you've been broken up with him for 6 months, where do you go on the weekends that we're home and you go out of town?"_

"_We'll get to that later." JJ frowned, an array of emotions playing over her features. "Can you please tell me how you feel about all of this first?"_

_Emily look at JJ and studied the blonde in silence for a few moments. "I wish you would have told me. I wouldn't have pushed for anything, Jennifer. I was completely fine with our friends-with-benefits relationship for a while. We could have taken things slow if you had told me you had feelings for me. I know I've been pushy lately, but that's because it's been 6 months and it's become more than just a once in a while thing. We spend a lot of time together, even if it's not sexual. You're my best friend, and the woman that I care so much about. And even when you denied it, I know you felt something for me too."_

_JJ nodded. "I did. And I do. That's why I was so scared. Things with you come so naturally, Em. I've never had that before. It's like we were made to be with each other." She softly said the last part. "I've never been so comfortable with someone in my life. You understand me, inside and out, and that terrifies me."_

"_Why?"_

"_Because I knew the moment I let myself fall for you, I wouldn't want to let go. I was scared of being vulnerable. I was scared of getting hurt. I was scared that you wouldn't feel the same."_

"_Have I not made it obvious how I feel about you?" Emily chuckled._

_JJ rolled her eyes. "Over the past month, yes. But before that I wasn't sure. I had fallen for you before we ever slept together, Em. I was scared you didn't want anything but sex."_

_Emily pulled the younger woman to her and cupped JJ's cheeks. "We have a lot to work out. And we have a lot more to talk about, but there is one thing that I want you to know before we talk any more about all of this."_

_JJ looked down to avoid Emily's eyes and bit her bottom lip nervously. "Ok." She said timidly._

"_Jennifer, look at me." Emily smiled reassuringly at the blonde. When JJ made eye contact again, Emily leaned forward to gently brush her lips over JJ's. "I love you, Jennifer Jareau. I have for a long time." She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind JJ's ear._

_JJ choked back a sob and closed the distance between her and Emily to capture Emily's lips in another kiss. This kiss lasted a moment longer than the last, and JJ pulled back to offer Emily a watery smile. "God. I love you too, Emily Prentiss." She laughed._

_Emily smiled from ear to ear as she tackled JJ onto her back. "What do you say we leave the rest of the talking for later, and you let me show you how much I love you."_

_JJ laughed. "I would love nothing more, but can I ask one thing?" When Emily nodded, JJ took a deep breath. "How are you ok with all of this. I expected you to freak out and be royally pissed off."_

_Emily shook her head with a laugh. "It's simple. I love you."_

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><p><strong>So, tell me what you thought! Good or bad, I love knowing what you guys are thinking so I can continue to keep you entertained. Cause let's be honest, you guys are the real reason I write. : )<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

After spending the day devising a plan for that night, the team was in the main area of the precinct to share their plan with the local LEO's. As they were grabbing their papers and diagrams, they all shared a look before walking out of their room. JJ reached out and took Emily's hand, stopping the brunette as the others filed out.

"What's wrong?" Emily wondered as she saw the way JJ was looking at her. Observing her body language, Emily took a step closer so that she was standing right in front of the blonde. "Are you ok?"

JJ blew a strand of hair from her face and shook her head. "I don't like that we're playing right into this fuckers trap. I'm worried about this raid."

Emily offered the blonde a comforting smile. "It's going to be ok. We spent all day planning, and we have the entire police force behind us."

"I know that, but things don't always go according to plan, Emily." JJ snapped and then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I just, I still have a really bad feeling about this case."

Emily pulled the younger woman into a hug. "We're all going to be ok, Jay."

JJ relaxed into Emily and wrapped her arms tightly around the brunette's neck. "I love you. In case anything happens, know that I love you." She whispered into Emily's ear.

"I love you too. But nothing is going to happen." Emily placed a light kiss on the side of JJ's head.

"Is everything ok in here?" Rossi asked as he poked his head into the room.

The women broke apart and turned to the older profiler. Emily gave JJ's hand one last squeeze and smiled at Rossi. "Everything is fine."

"We're waiting for you two to go over the plan." Rossi couldn't help but smile at the affection the other two women were sharing.

JJ nodded her head. "We're coming."

Following Rossi into the main area of the precinct, Rossi, JJ, and Emily all made their way to the front of the room where the rest of the team was waiting. Any cop that was not on a call at the moment was crowded into the room along with SWAT teams, detectives, narcotics officers, and the undercover officers. It's was all hands on deck, and the overflowing room proved it.

"As you can see, there are a lot of us here today." Hotch started, effectively cutting off the chatter that had filled the room while they were waiting. "For those of you that don't know, we received a note today from who we believe is the unsub behind the murder of two couples and the kidnapping of another two couples. This unsub wants us to meet him at an abandoned factory at 7."

"We spent all day drawing up a plan, and this is where you all come in." Morgan took over. "There's not telling what we're walking into, so we have decided that preparing for the worst and hoping for the best is the most logical course of action on this raid. Everyone needs to be suited up for this, just to be on the safe side."

Reid began handing out photocopied diagrams to the officers closest to him. "We've printed off what we drew up, so everyone please take a copy or find a partner to share with. You'll see that we have already set up where the SWAT teams need to be as well as where the snipers will be positioned. Everyone else will see that you're going to be split into teams. The entrances and the routes you'll be taking once inside the building are labeled also."

"Not only are we going to have eyes and ears inside the building, we will have them surrounding the parameter too." Emily spoke up. "Helicopters will be on stand-by to get in the air at a moments notice, the fire department and EMS will be staged around the corner just in case, and we will have vans surrounding the building with back-up teams. The blueprints for the building are in the copies being passed around, and I advise you to make sure you know the routes you're taking."

"As you can see, there is a large open room in the middle of the factory. We think this is where the unsub is leading us." Morgan put his hands on the back of the chair in front of him and looked as many people in the eye as he could. "We'll work from the outside in, hopefully timing it correctly so that we all meet in the middle. If you find things along the way, stop and examine them and make sure to relay any information to all the other teams."

JJ took a deep breath and crossed her arms. "This raid could go one of two ways. We're being lead to a dead end while this unsub distracts us or we're being lead into a trap. Everyone needs to be on their game for this. If you're tired, distracted, or uncomfortable, we need to know now. You won't be penalized if you back down from this assignment. We have more than enough officers to fill the spots on each team. Could we utilize all of you, of course, but we can get by without everyone if need be also."

"Take a few minutes to look everything over and come to us with a decision. We'll roll out in 30 minutes to set up." Rossi closed out the briefing and turned to Hotch. Dropping his voice to make sure that no one else could hear him, he leveled Hotch with a concerned look. "I sure hope we're making the right choice here, Aaron."

Hotch couldn't hide his grimace. "So do I, Dave. So do I."

* * *

><p>It was 6 when all of the teams were getting into position. It had been established that they would enter the building at 6:30 instead of 7 to try to gain the upper hand on the unsub. After helping everyone get set up and ready, the BAU members were the last to get into position with their elected teams and were standing around one of the SUVs putting on their vests.<p>

"I know that we're all going in there with teams and partners we know nothing about, so please be careful." Hotch said as she strapped the Velcro together on his vest. Checking his gun, he put it back in it's holster and looked around at his team. "Let's do this clean, let's do this quick, and let's get this unsub behind bars."

A silence befell the team as they mentally prepared themselves. Before they split, they all made eye contact with each other, no words needed to convey what they all felt. With one last nod, the team went their separate ways to lead their teams.

As soon as 6:30 hit Hotch's voice came over everyone's ear pieces. "Everyone in position?" 'Affirmatives' were heard from each team leader. "Alright. In 3, 2, 1. GO!"

Everyone quietly entered the building and followed the routes they were supposed to take. Eyes roaming everywhere they could, silence was the only thing heard as they made their way to the middle of the building.

"Guys, I got something here." Emily's voice came through. "There's a room here with fresh blood spatter." Examining the room, Emily grimaced at the amount of blood coating the walls and ceiling. "There's a few knives lying around." She bent down to examine one of the blades, not surprised when it was covered with the sticky red substance.

"Prentiss, split your team up. Half stays, the other half continues. I want you in the middle with the rest of the BAU." Rossi spoke up. "Same goes for any other BAU member. If you find something, split your team and continue to the main room."

"We have a room with chairs, ropes, and a table. Fresh blood." Morgan piped up looking around the room his team stumbled upon. He looked to find the kind of rope it was. "Same kind of rope according to the pattern. If not identical, pretty damn close."

"Baseball bat, gloves, pipes, and a make-shift cage." Reid sighed as he stood in the middle of his room, letting the officers look everything over.

"Guys…" JJ paused. "I have a body." Clearing her throat, she bent down and checked for a pulse. Not surprised when she didn't find one, she looked the body over trying to find the cause of death. "Gunshot wound to the back of the head." She shook her head sadly.

"I have a body also." Hotch couldn't hide the anger from his voice as he checked for a pulse in the male victim. "Male or female, JJ?"

"Female." JJ sighed. "How far out is everyone from the main room?"

Everyone agreed that the door at the end of their hallways was the door that lead to the main room. Once they had all arrived at the door, they counted down and entered. The room was pitch black, and as soon as they turned on their flashlights the main lights in the room were flipped on.

"Well well. You're a little early, Agents." A lone male was standing in the middle of the room, leaning on a crate. "I wasn't sure if you were going to show up." He picked out each of the BAU members and pointed at them. "It's nice to see you all."

"Put down you weapon." Morgan calmly said as he saw the outline of a gun under the man's shirt.

"Tsk tsk." The man held up a finger and waved it back and forth. "Agent Morgan, where's the fun in that."

"Listen to him." JJ said through gritted teeth. "Put your weapon on the ground."

"Agent Jareau. Such a pretty girl for such an ugly job." The man pulled the gun out from under his shirt slowly. "Don't shoot. I'm only listening to the young lady." He gently placed the gun on the ground.

"Kick it away from you." Emily demanded. "Now."

"Agent Prentiss. Nice to see you alive and well." The man smirked.

"Kneel on the ground, hands on the back of your head." Hotch instructed.

The man obeyed and slowly dropped to his knees. "Ah. The fearless leader Aaron Hotchner. Who knew-"

"Shut up. Shut up and do as he says." Morgan interrupted, tired of the game this unsub was playing. Signaling for everyone to descend the stairs, Morgan kept his gun trained on the man. "Where are the other two you kidnapped?"

"They're… Around." The man gave the dark agent a sinister grin. Rossi made it to the kneeling man first and put his foot in the middle of the unsub's back to push him forward and hold him into place. The man landed on the ground with Rossi's foot still in the middle of his back. JJ was the one who ran up to cuff him, roughly yanking him to his feet when she was done. "For a pretty little thing, you sure have some power behind you." He grinned lecherously at the blonde.

JJ returned the grin with an unreadable look in her eye. "You have no idea mother fucker." She hissed and shoved him towards Hotch.

"You're under arrest for the murders of-"

"Save it Hotchner. I already know my rights." The man whirled in Hotch's arms to face him. "I'll write up my confession at the station."

Hotch shoved the man forward and looked at his team. "Search the building."

* * *

><p>Three hours later found the team back at the station. They found one of the other bodies in another room, and the other male was found alive, although just barely. The paramedics rushed him to the hospital, unable to say whether or not the man would pull through.<p>

"How's it going in there?" Emily asked Hotch as she walked into the room off of the interrogation room.

"He confessed to everything." Hotch frowned, crossing his arms as he watched the unsub. "His name is Greg Euless. He said he did everything because he was bored. Wanted to play games. He led us to him because he was tired of it because it wasn't as fulfilling as he thought it would be."

Emily raised an eyebrow. "That was easy."

"Too easy." Hotch sighed and pulled out his phone. "Garcia, I need you to get me anything you can on a Greg Euless. And I need it fast."

"This was too easy." Emily agreed after a moment of looking at Greg. "He's too calm. He portrays no sense of nervousness. No sense of… Any emotion."

"I know." Hotch turned to face Emily. "Go in there and talk to him. Maybe he'll say more to you."

"Let me go in there." JJ said from behind Hotch and Emily.

"Jay, I don't think-"

"He had the most fun taunting me." JJ cut Emily off. "Let me in there and see if I can break him. You know I'm right. You heard the way he talked to me." She gave Hotch a determined look.

Hotch looked between the two women, noticing their silent battle of wills. "JJ is right." He looked at Emily. "If anyone can get him to open up, it's her."

JJ said nothing as she walked past them to walk into the interrogation room. Taking a seat across from Greg, she folded her arms on the table and looked him in the eye. Greg smirked and leaned back in his chair.

"Agent Jareau. What a pleasure to see you again."

"Why. Why did you do it?" JJ jumped right in, never breaking eye contact.

"Why not." Greg laughed. "Games are fun, don't you agree, Jennifer?"

JJ cocked her head to the side and studied him. "I do agree. Games are about control. Control is fun."

Greg smiled. "I knew you would understand."

"You think we're the same, but we aren't."

"How do you figure that?" Greg leaned forward and intently studied the blonde.

"Because while I do enjoy games, what drives me to play them isn't the same motivation as you."

"And what do you think my motivation is?"

"You're dying." JJ said simply, opening her hands and relaxing back in her chair.

"Interesting." Greg squinted at the woman. "And what, if that's true, would that have to do with anything?"

"You gave yourself up because you know you don't have much time left. The games are fun until you become to weak to play them. Which is why you pit people against each other instead of doing the dirty work yourself. You're too weak to take them on, but you're not too weak to get off on them doing it to each other." JJ leaned forward to get in his face. "How much time do you have left?" She whispered with a wicked smile.

Greg frowned and stared into blue eyes filled with anger and determination. "4 months, give or take." He answered honestly.

Sitting back in her seat, JJ let out a humorless laugh. "Just long enough to sit in prison and die before this ever goes to trial."

Greg shrugged. "I've lived my life, I've had my fun, I've played my games. What more could I ask for?"

"You're a monster."

"I'm no different than you." Greg winked.

JJ scoffed. "I don't murder people for the sheer thrill of it."

"No, maybe not. But the control gets you off just as much as it does me."

"We're nothing alike." JJ said through gritted teeth and stood up. "Have fun dying in prison."

Greg also stood up. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Jennifer."

JJ slammed her hands down on the table. Dropping her voice so that the microphones wouldn't pick up her words, she leaned in. "I hope you get torn apart limb by limb in prison."

"What was that you were saying about us being different?" Greg raised an eyebrow with a challenging grin.

JJ didn't say anything else as she left the room, rejoining Emily. "Dammit." She sighed. "I still got no emotion from him."

Emily looked at JJ wide-eyed. "What the fuck was that?"

JJ gave the brunette a confused look. "What was what?"

Emily jerked her thumb at the direction of Greg. "That. In there. You were furious."

JJ laughed. "Em, it's called acting. I was trying to get a rise out of him." Turning to look at the man, she crossed her arms and sighed. "I thought it would work. Where's Hotch?"

"He went to go talk to Garcia." Emily put a hand on JJ's arm. "Are you sure you're ok?"

JJ turned to Emily with a smile. "I promise, baby. I'm fine." She leaned in to steal a quick kiss.

Hotch returned and the two women sprung apart. "Garcia sent me the information about Euless. JJ, how the hell did you know that he was dying?"

JJ shrugged. "No one willingly gives themselves up and has no emotion about it if they still had a full life ahead of them."

Hotch smiled. "You're good."

"So what now?" Emily wondered.

"There's nothing more for us to do here. The local police have it from here." Hotch looked at his watch. "Let's get some rest and we'll leave first thing in the morning."

Hotch and Emily both turned to leave, but JJ stayed staring at Greg Euless.

"Jayje?" Emily asked. "You coming?"

"This doesn't feel right." JJ whispered.

"It's late, you're tired. Let's go get some sleep and I'm sure you'll feel better." Emily wrapped her arms around JJ from behind. "We got him."

JJ relaxed into Emily's embrace. "I hope you're right."

* * *

><p><strong>Seem a little anticlimactic for all the build up? Yeah, I know. I'm kind of evil like that. Or is it all a part of my master plan? Hmm... Thank you again to everyone who takes the time to leave a review. I love hearing what you all are thinking. And to all of the silent readers, thanks for reading!<strong> **Hopefully I have time this week to work on the next chapter and have it out by early next week. God only knows what work will bring though. Thank you all for being patient with me! : )**


	10. Chapter 10

Once the BAU team had cleared the police station and started their trek to the hotel, Emily glanced at JJ worriedly. The blonde was staring out of the window with an unreadable expression on her face. Emily frowned and placed her hand on JJ's thigh, breaking the trance the blonde had fallen into. Smiling at Emily, JJ linked their hands and leaned her head on Emily's shoulder. Emily turned to kiss JJ's head and sighed.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Emily whispered into blonde hair.

"Yeah." JJ yawned. "Just exhausted."

"We still need to talk." Emily pointed out.

JJ nodded into Emily's shoulder. "I know. But can it wait until we get home?"

"Of course." Emily chuckled.

"Are you staying in my room tonight?" JJ picked her head up and gave the brunette a knowing smirk.

"I was actually thinking about staying in my own room tonight." Emily said nonchalantly.

JJ's jaw dropped. "You're lying."

"Nope. I'm tired." Emily covered her fake yawn with her free hand. "You understand, right?"

JJ raised an eyebrow and sat up straight. "You're still lying."

Emily put her head on the seat and closed her eyes. "I'm probably going to pass out in the 10 minutes it takes to get to the hotel."

JJ narrowed her eyes at the older profiler. "Oh, it's on." She whispered and stared out the window again.

"I'm hungry." Reid suddenly spoke up from the front seat. "Can we stop and grab some food?"

"Reid, for how skinny you are, you sure do eat a hell of a lot." Morgan chuckled. Glancing in the rear view mirror, Morgan looked at the girls. "Are you two hungry?"

Emily suddenly perked up and smiled. "Starved."

JJ rolled her eyes and nodded. "I could eat."

"Food it is then." Morgan chuckled and punched some things into the GPS to find somewhere to eat.

* * *

><p>"So what's up with you two now?" Morgan pointed his fork at JJ and Emily before stabbing his steak.<p>

"We're together." Emily said at the same time JJ said "We're figuring it out." They turned to each other and shared a confused look.

"Whatever it is you're obviously not on the same page." Reid mumbled under his breath and took a big bite of his potato.

"We're figuring it out?" Emily scoffed.

"We still have a lot we need to talk about. But this is not the time nor the place for it." JJ hissed.

Emily clenched her jaw at the blonde and turned her attention to Morgan and Reid. "So what do you all think about this case?"

Morgan shrugged. "I think he's a twisted dying man who got his rocks off by torturing people."

"I don't think it's him." JJ rubbed her temples.

"JJ, he confessed." Reid furrowed his brows. "There's nothing else we have to go on besides that."

"But you don't think it was a little convenient how we were here for only a couple of days before we caught him? He got 'bored' that easily?" JJ pressed. "Look at all of the case information compared to how easy this was for us to close it out. It shouldn't have been that simple." She sighed heavily. "It's never that simple." She whispered almost to herself.

"I agree that everything did seem a little elaborate for how quickly he gave up, but maybe he was getting to tired to play the games." Reid said.

"And we're not even going to stay to talk to the surviving victim? There could be more we need to know." JJ stated, the frustration evident in her voice.

"What's there to know, JJ? We got him. The rest of it is up to the local PD to deal with. They're the ones who need to find the information to build their case." Morgan jumped in.

JJ tossed her napkin down. "Whatever." She stood up. "I have to use the restroom." She walked toward the bathrooms without a backwards glance at her friends.

"Ok, what the fuck is up with her?" Morgan immediately turned to Emily as soon as JJ was out of earshot.

"I have no idea." Emily said sadly. "She definitely hasn't been herself lately though. She's so much more… Angry."

"She's opening up to you now though, at least last night made it look like that." Reid added. "Have you asked her flat out what's wrong?"

"No, but I plan on it as soon as we get home." Emily looked in the direction that JJ disappeared.

* * *

><p>Once back at the hotel, the four agents had parted to go to their separate rooms to pack and sleep before leaving the next day. Emily and JJ hadn't said a word to each other since the restaurant, and without a second thought both went to their respective rooms instead of staying together.<p>

About an hour later, Emily was standing at the foot of her bed zipping up her go-bag when there was a knock at the door. Sighing and tossing the bag in the corner, she slowly opened the door, surprised to see JJ standing there with a sheepish smile and a bottle of wine.

"Hi." JJ said softly. She averted her eyes and shifted nervously on her feet before looking back at Emily and holding up the wine bottle. "You up for a couple glasses of wine and an apology?"

"Come on in." Emily stepped aside so the blonde could enter the room. Watching JJ sit on the edge of the bed, Emily closed the door and went over to the desk to grab two of the plastic cups the hotel provided. "Not exactly classy, but it'll get the job done." Emily chuckled when she handed the cups to JJ.

JJ smirked and twisted the cap off of the wine bottle. "Not exactly classy, but it'll get the job done." She mimicked Emily and gestured to the cheap wine. "I couldn't find a corkscrew, so I grabbed whatever wine had a twist top. No guarantees on how it'll taste."

Emily laughed as she sat down next to the younger woman and took the cup of wine offered. Taking a sip, she shrugged. "It's not that bad actually."

"Good." JJ set the wine bottle on the bedside table and scooted so that she was sitting more fully on the bed and leaned against the headboard. Taking a deep breath, the blonde frowned. "I'm sorry."

Emily took another sip of wine and turned to face JJ. "What's going on with you, Jayje?"

JJ ran a hand through her hair and set the cup next to the bottle. Bringing her knees to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her head on her knees. "I've just been… God. I don't know. There's a lot going on that I don't know how to handle."

Emily moved so that she was sitting across from JJ so that she could look at her better. "What's going on. You've been so distant and angry lately."

"Do you think Euless was right? Am I a control freak?" JJ blurted.

Emily chuckled. "Honestly, yes. But it's not a bad thing. You just like to stay on top of things."

JJ smirked. "You would know." She quipped.

Emily rolled her eyes and lightly smacked JJ on the leg. "Not what I meant."

"I know. Look Emily, I know that I haven't treated you well over these past few months. I wish I could go back and do things differently, I really do. I don't know what I was scared of. I still don't know what I'm scared of."

"Can I ask why earlier today you had no problem making it pretty damn apparent that we're together and telling me you love me and worrying for my safety, but tonight you totally did a 180 when Morgan asked what was going on with us?"

"I'm not good at opening up. You should know that. I tend to keep things private, especially around the team because I don't want to be profiled. What I told Morgan is true, because we do have a lot we need to talk about and work out. But that doesn't change anything I said to you earlier today. I do love you, Emily, but this is new territory for me."

"Why?"

"Love is scary. It's terrifying, actually. It's giving 100 percent of yourself to someone. It's relinquishing that control to open up and trust someone enough not to hurt you." JJ looked Emily in the eye with a pained look. "And with this job it's even more scary, because the chances of something happening to you and me being left behind to pick up the pieces are extremely high. That's why I kind of freaked earlier today." She admitted softly.

Emily moved so that was closer to JJ and wrapped her arms around JJ's legs. "You're right, there is a chance something could happen to me. I feel the same way about you. You can't let that stop you from letting me in." She leaned forward and kissed the blonde on the forehead. "I love you, Jennifer. And that right there is going to push me to make sure that I come home to you every night."

"You can't promise that though." JJ whispered.

"You're right, I can't. I won't make a promise to you that I might not be able to keep. But like I said, I will try my damnedest to come home to you every night."

JJ moved so that she was straddling the brunettes lap. Leaning down, she kissed Emily slowly. Wrapping her arms around Emily's neck, she pulled back to rest their foreheads together. "I'm sorry. I'm going to try to be more open. I love you."

Emily smiled. "I love you too." Kissing JJ again, Emily pulled back. "Now you want to talk about why you've been so angry lately. And you still haven't told me where you run off to on the weekends we're home." She furrowed her brows in thought.

JJ pushed Emily back on the bed and stretched herself out on top of the older woman. "I think we've talked enough for one night, don't you?" She husked in Emily's ear and pulled her earlobe with her teeth.

"That's so not fair." Emily said, her breath hitching in her throat.

"Life's not fair. Get used to it." JJ smirked before bringing their lips together.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry it's short. I just wanted to get it out to you all. Next one will be much longer and have more JJEmily talk time, more case information, and more team bonding goodness. : )**


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